Statistics: United States

There are approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S.
It is estimated that one-fifth of those people don’t know they have it.
Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, 1.7 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than 600,000 have died of AIDS.
An estimated 50,000 new HIV infections occur in the U.S. each year.
Men who have sex with men (MSM) account for the majority of new HIV/AIDS diagnoses although MSM comprise only around 2% of the U.S. male population. In 2007, a third of these MSM were younger than 30 years old.
New HIV diagnoses among MSM were more than 44 times higher than among other men and more than 40 times higher than women in 2008.
African Americans accounted for 44% of new HIV infections diagnosed in 2009, although they comprise only 14% of the population.
The HIV infection rate among African American women is 15 times higher than the rate among white women.
The infection rate among Latinos was two and a half times higher than the rate among whites in 2006.
In 2009, more than 25% of people diagnosed with HIV in the U.S. were women.
The vast majority of newly diagnosed HIV-positive women contracted the virus through heterosexual sex.
In 2006, 34% of all new infections occurred among people aged 13-29—more than any other age group.

Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Last updated October 2011