A major gap in HIV care can appear after diagnosis: people may know that they are living with HIV but still not be receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART). The latest World Health Organization country observations in this dataset cover 139 countries and areas. Restricting the comparison to the 117 observations dated 2025 gives a median of 88.0% and a simple unweighted country mean of 85.1%. Thirty-nine countries are at 95% or higher, while 23 are below 75% and six are below 60%.
This indicator corresponds to the second 95 in the WHO/UNAIDS 95-95-95 cascade. The first 95 asks whether people living with HIV know their status, the second asks whether people who know their HIV-positive status are receiving ART, and the third asks whether people on ART have achieved viral suppression. It is therefore not the same as ART coverage among all people living with HIV, because the denominator is smaller and begins only after diagnosis is known.
Table of Contents
This is the second step of the 95-95-95 HIV treatment cascade
WHO’s HIV strategic information page describes the 2025 targets as 95% of people living with HIV knowing their status, 95% of those who know their status receiving ART, and 95% of people on ART achieving viral suppression. HIV_STATUSKNOWNART measures the middle step. Its denominator is people living with HIV who know their HIV-positive status; its numerator is the subset receiving antiretroviral therapy.
That denominator matters. A country can perform well on the second 95 because most people who have been diagnosed are linked to treatment, while still having a substantial overall treatment gap if many people living with HIV remain undiagnosed. The first and second 95 therefore answer different questions: testing and diagnosis come first, then linkage to sustained treatment.
The 2025 median across 117 countries is 88.0%
For a same-year comparison, only the 117 rows dated 2025 are used. Their median is 88.0% and the simple unweighted mean is 85.1%. Six countries are below 60%, 17 are from 60% to under 75%, 41 are from 75% to under 90%, 14 are from 90% to under 95%, and 39 are at least 95%. Fifty-three of the 117 countries are at 90% or higher, but 39 reach the 95% target threshold.
WHO reports that globally in 2025, about 89% of people who knew their HIV-positive status were receiving ART. That global estimate should not be replaced with the 85.1% mean above. The WHO global figure reflects the international estimation framework and the sizes of national HIV populations, whereas 85.1% gives every one of the 117 country observations the same weight. They are useful for different purposes.
The lower tail points to substantial post-diagnosis treatment gaps
Among the 2025 observations, Afghanistan is at 43%, Mauritius 47%, Belize and Djibouti 54%, Fiji 56%, and Libya 59%. Because the denominator already consists of people who know their HIV-positive status, values below 60% indicate a large remaining gap between awareness of diagnosis and receipt of ART. The indicator alone cannot identify the cause, but it clearly distinguishes this post-diagnosis gap from failure to diagnose infection in the first place.
Several countries fall between 60% and 75%, including Sudan and Bolivia at 61%, the Philippines at 66%, Paraguay at 67%, Lithuania and Qatar at 68%, and Bangladesh at 70%. Linkage after diagnosis can depend on many features not present in this table, including referral systems, drug availability, continuity of care, geographic access, stigma, and reporting systems. Those factors should be investigated separately rather than inferred from the map.
Many countries report 95% or more, so exact rank order is not the main story
A large group of countries report values at or near the top of the scale. Benin, Botswana, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Costa Rica, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zambia and Zimbabwe are among the 2025 observations at 98%. Because so many countries share the same reported value, a detailed 1st-to-20th ranking would imply more precision than the data support. Reaching or exceeding the 95% target is the more useful distinction.
| Country | 2025 value | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Afghanistan | 43% | Low linkage to ART among people who know their status |
| Brazil | 77% | Falls in the 75–<90% band |
| South Africa | 85% | Slightly below the 2025 country median |
| India | 88% | Equal to the 2025 country median |
| Mexico | 95% | At the second-95 target threshold |
| Kenya | 98% | In the 95%+ band |
| Nigeria | 98% | In the 95%+ band |
These percentages are not complete scores for national HIV programmes. A high second-95 value does not reveal how many people remain undiagnosed, whether treatment is continuously retained, or whether viral suppression is achieved. The three stages of the cascade need to be interpreted together.
Why is this higher than ART coverage among all people living with HIV?
WHO’s HIV response data report that about 78% of all people living with HIV were accessing ART globally in 2025. The second 95 is higher—about 89% globally—because people who do not yet know their HIV status are excluded from its denominator. ART coverage among all people living with HIV includes that undiagnosed group and therefore answers a broader question.
Reading the two indicators together helps separate where the treatment cascade is losing people. A large first-95 gap points to diagnosis and testing; a large second-95 gap points to linkage from known diagnosis into treatment. High performance on both is required before ART coverage among all people living with HIV can approach the global target, and the third 95 is then needed to show whether treatment is achieving viral suppression.
The 139 latest observations are not a synchronized 2025 ranking
The latest-value map uses all 139 country observations, but their reference years differ. There are 117 observations from 2025, 13 from 2024, six from 2023, and one each from 2022, 2021 and 2018. Canada is represented by 2022, Spain by 2021 and Iceland by 2018. Mixing them into a single “2025 world ranking” would therefore be misleading.
For this reason, the median, mean, distribution bands and comparison table use only the 117 rows with year=2025. Countries with older latest observations are hatched on the map. Gray is not a value of zero: it means that a country has no observation in this 139-row set or is not represented as a visible matched polygon in the low-resolution boundary layer. Of the 139 statistical observations, 130 match directly to country polygons at this scale.
Geographic patterns do not prove causes
The map can reveal clusters of relatively high or low treatment linkage, but the indicator does not contain variables that establish why those differences exist. Health financing, national income, external aid, policy design, service decentralization, stigma, conflict, drug supply and data systems can all matter, but causal claims require additional evidence. This map should be used to identify where the second-95 gap is larger or smaller, not to assign a cause from geography alone.
Country estimates also carry statistical and reporting uncertainty. WHO presents the global 95-95-95 indicators with uncertainty intervals, and small differences between country percentages should not be treated as exact performance ranks. Thresholds, large gaps and changes over time are generally more informative than a one-point difference in a single year.
Data source and calculation method
The country observations come from the WHO Global Health Observatory indicator HIV_STATUSKNOWNART, “Percentage of people living with HIV who know their status receiving antiretroviral therapy.” The map keeps the latest total observation available for each of the 139 countries or areas in the table, and the unit is percent. The same-year 2025 statistics are calculated only from the 117 rows whose year is actually 2025. Missing values are not converted to zero and older observations are not imputed forward.
WHO’s HIV/AIDS fact sheet and strategic information pages provide the broader context for the cascade. In 2025, WHO reports that about 88% of people living with HIV knew their status, about 89% of those who knew their status were receiving ART, and about 95% of people on ART had viral suppression. Each percentage uses a different denominator, which is why the stages should not be collapsed into a single treatment statistic.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this ART coverage among all people living with HIV?
No. The denominator is people living with HIV who know their HIV-positive status. ART coverage among all people living with HIV uses the broader estimated HIV-positive population as its denominator.
What does the second 95 mean?
It is the target that 95% of people who know their HIV-positive status should be receiving antiretroviral therapy. The first 95 concerns diagnosis awareness and the third concerns viral suppression among people on ART.
Is 85.1% the global 2025 treatment rate?
No. It is a simple unweighted mean across the 117 countries with 2025 observations. WHO reports a global second-95 estimate of about 89%, calculated under a different aggregation framework.
Do gray countries on the map have a value of zero?
No. Gray means there is no observation in this 139-row dataset or no visible matched polygon at this low-resolution map scale.
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- Tanzania 2022 TDHS-MIS Guide – Demographic, Health and Malaria Survey
- Rural Basic Drinking Water Access Map – Latest Country Data
- Global Clean Cooking Access Map – Country Patterns in 2023
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These maps are edited visual materials, not raw data files, and are provided for education, documents, presentations, and graphic reference.
