In South Africa in 2018:

7 700 000 people were living with HIV.

HIV incidence per 1000 uninfected—the number of new HIV infections among the uninfected population over one year—among all people of all ages was 4.94.

HIV prevalence—the percentage of people living with HIV—among adults (15–49 years) was 20.4%.

240 000 people were newly infected with HIV.

71 000 people died from an AIDS-related illness.

There has been progress in the number of AIDS-related deaths since 2010, with a 50% decrease, from 140 000 deaths to 71 000 deaths. The number of new HIV infections fell from 390 000 to 240 000 in the same period.

The 90–90–90 targets envision that, by 2020, 90% of people living with HIV will know their HIV status, 90% of people who know their HIV-positive status will be accessing treatment and 90% of people on treatment will have suppressed viral loads. In terms of all people living with HIV, reaching the 90–90–90 targets means that 81% of all people living with HIV are on treatment and 73% of all people living with HIV are virally suppressed. In 2018 in South Africa:

90% of people living with HIV knew their status.

62% of people living with HIV were on treatment.

54% of people living with HIV were virally suppressed.

Of all adults aged 15 years and over living with HIV, 62% were on treatment, while 63% of children aged 0–14 years living with HIV were on treatment.

Eighty-seven per cent of pregnant women living with HIV accessed antiretroviral medicine to prevent transmission of the virus to their baby, preventing 53 000 new HIV infections among newborns. Early infant diagnosis―the percentage of HIV-exposed infants tested for HIV before eight weeks of age―stood at more than 89% in 2018.

Women are disproportionally affected by HIV in South Africa: of the 7 500 000 adults living with HIV, 4 700 000 (62.67%) were women. New HIV infections among young women aged 15–24 years were more than double those among young men: 69 000 new infections among young women, compared to 25 000 among young men. HIV treatment was also higher among women than men, with 65% of adult women living with HIV on treatment, compared to 56% of adult men.

Same-sex sexual relations are legal in South Africa.

Only 45.8% of women and men 15–24 years old correctly identified ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV.

In 2017, the percentage of people living with HIV and tuberculosis who were being treated for both diseases was 57.0%, up from 51.4% in 2015.