United Kingdom Statistics Summary

back to top Key figures

Around 86,500 people were living with HIV in the UK at the end of 2009, of whom a quarter were unaware of their infection.

In 2010, there were 6,136 new diagnoses of HIV, contributing to a cumulative total of 114,766 cases reported by the end of December 2010.

As of December 2010, there have been 26,791 diagnoses of AIDS in the UK, and 19,912 people diagnosed with HIV have died.

back to top Trends in HIV and AIDS statistics

Following the discovery of AIDS in the UK in the early 1980s, there was a steady increase in the number of people diagnosed with HIV. From 1987 to 1990 the cumulative number of reported HIV diagnoses almost doubled, from 8,016 to 15,166.1 2

HIV/AIDS was first concentrated among three 'high-risk' groups - men who have sex with men (MSM), injecting drug users and people who had received treatment with blood products. By the end of December 2010, a reported 1,955 recipients of blood/tissue products had become infected with HIV through contaminated blood products - almost 80 percent were diagnosed before 1994. Blood safety guidelines were established in 1985 to ensure no more infections occurred through unsafe blood transfusions.

Between 1990 and 1997 there were between 2,000 and 2,700 HIV diagnoses reported annually.3 From 1999 there was a steep increase in the number of annual HIV diagnoses, peaking in 2005 at 7,982. There was a slight decline in subsequent years, but the number of new diagnoses today is still far higher than the pre-2003 rate.

A major component of the rapid increase over the past 15 years has been heterosexually acquired infection. Up until 1998, the highest number of new HIV infections were acquired through sex between men. However, since 1999 heterosexually acquired HIV has overtaken as the largest exposure category. Heterosexual sex accounted for 42 percent of HIV diagnoses in 2010 and sex between men accounted for 38.5 percent, compared to 1995 when 31 percent were a result of heterosexual sex and 58 percent of new HIV diagnoses resulted from sex between men. Most of the new diagnoses among heterosexuals are in people who probably acquired HIV in other countries, particularly Africa. However, the number of infections probably acquired from heterosexual sex within the UK increased from 157 in 2000 to approximately 416 in 2010.

The introduction of combination antiretroviral treatment in the mid-1990s has resulted in a steep decline in the number of AIDS cases and deaths reported each year. In 1997 around 750 people living with HIV died, compared to 1,723 two years earlier. Since 1998 the number of deaths among people living with HIV has remained more or less constant, averaging around 400 to 500 per year.

HIV and AIDS cases by year of diagnosis and deaths in HIV-infected individuals by year of death, 1993-2007

Men who have sex with men

By the end of December 2010, 50,137 MSM had been diagnosed with HIV in the UK, including those who have died. The number of new HIV infections among this group has been steadily increasing since 1999 - peaking in 2007 at 2,803. It is likely this trend is due to an increase in HIV testing, although a rise in high risk sexual behaviour has also been suggested as a contributory factor.4

Injecting drug users

Injecting drug use has played a smaller part in the HIV epidemic in the UK than it has in many other high-income countries. During 2010, a reported 111 people were diagnosed with HIV probably acquired through injecting drug use. Since the beginning of the AIDS epidemic in the UK, 5,396 HIV diagnoses have been a result of injecting drug use.

Mother-to-child transmission of HIV

Surveillance of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (MTCT) relies on confidential voluntary reports from paediatricians and obstetricians. By the end of December 2010, 1,943 children in the UK had been diagnosed with HIV transmitted from mother to child. Of these, 994 were diagnosed after having being infected abroad.

The number of mother-to-child HIV infections almost doubled from 56 in 1995 to 107 in 2006. However, due to the widespread use of antiretroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission, these rates are still far lower than many other countries.

Sources back to top

References back to top

  1. Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (1988, 15th April) 'UK statistics', AIDS Newsletter, Vol. 3, Issue 5
  2. Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases (1991, 28th January) 'Statistics', AIDS Newsletter, Vol. 6, Issue 2
  3. Public Health Laboratory Service AIDS Centre & the Scottish Centre for Infection & Environmental Health (1998, February) 'AIDS/HIV Quarterly Surveillance Tables: UK data to end December 1997'
  4. Dougan S. et al (April 2007) 'Does the recent increase in HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men in the UK reflect a rise in HIV incidence or increased uptake of HIV testing?', Sexually Transmitted Infections 83(2)