Knowing one’s HIV-positive status is the gateway into the treatment cascade. A person who is living with HIV but has not been diagnosed cannot be linked to antiretroviral therapy (ART) through the usual care pathway. The latest World Health Organization observations retained for this country dataset cover 139 countries and areas. When the comparison is restricted to the 118 observations actually dated 2025, the median is 84.5% and the simple unweighted country mean is 80.9%.
This indicator is the first 95 in the 95-95-95 HIV cascade. Its numerator is the number of people living with HIV who know that they are HIV-positive, while its denominator is the estimated number of people living with HIV. It is not the share of the whole population that has taken an HIV test, it is not HIV prevalence, and it is not the share of diagnosed people who are receiving ART. Those measures answer different questions and use different denominators.
Table of Contents
The first 95 measures diagnosis awareness among people living with HIV
WHO’s HIV indicator framework defines this measure as the percentage of people living with HIV who know their HIV status. In the 95-95-95 cascade, the first target is for 95% of people living with HIV to know their status. The second target applies only to those who know their positive status and asks whether they are receiving ART. The third applies only to people on ART and asks whether they have achieved viral suppression.
That sequence is important. High diagnosis awareness makes treatment possible, but it does not by itself prove that treatment coverage or viral suppression is equally high. A country can identify a large share of people living with HIV and still lose people between diagnosis and treatment. Conversely, a country may link diagnosed patients to treatment effectively while still having a large undiagnosed population. The three stages therefore need to be read as a continuum rather than interchangeable percentages.
The indicator should also not be reduced to a count of tests performed. WHO documentation describes a numerator based on people living with HIV who know their diagnosis and a denominator based on the estimated population living with HIV. Depending on the country, case-based surveillance, programme records, surveys and modelling can contribute to the estimates. This means that broad gaps and target attainment are more informative than treating one-percentage-point differences as exact league-table positions.
Among 118 countries with 2025 data, the median is 84.5%
A same-year comparison avoids mixing current and older observations. The 118 rows dated 2025 have a median of 84.5%, a simple mean of 80.9%, a 25th percentile of 77% and a 75th percentile of 92%. In other words, half of these country observations fall roughly between 77% and 92%. The centre of the distribution is therefore still below the 95% target even though a substantial group of countries is close to it.
The distribution contains 10 countries below 60%, 18 from 60% to under 75%, 50 from 75% to under 90%, 24 from 90% to under 95%, and 16 at 95% or above. Forty of the 118 countries are at least 90%, but only 16 reach or exceed the first-95 threshold. Twenty-eight countries remain below 75%. These counts show why a single mean cannot describe the full range of diagnosis awareness.
WHO’s HIV/AIDS fact sheet and HIV data and statistics page report that about 88% of people living with HIV globally knew their status in 2025. That global estimate is not the same statistic as the 80.9% country mean above. WHO’s global figure reflects the size of the population living with HIV and its international estimation framework, whereas 80.9% gives every one of the 118 country observations equal weight. The simple mean should therefore never be relabelled as the global diagnosis-awareness rate.
Sixteen 2025 observations meet or exceed the 95% first-95 target
Botswana, Estonia, Eswatini, Lesotho and Saudi Arabia are reported at 98% in the 2025 subset. Namibia and Sao Tome and Principe are at 97%. Argentina, the Bahamas, Malawi, Rwanda, South Africa and Zambia are at 96%, while Cambodia, Uruguay and Zimbabwe are at 95%. Because several countries share values at or near the ceiling, the meaningful distinction is whether they are in the target-achieving group, not whether 98% should be ranked above 97% as though the estimates were perfectly precise.
The African region is especially useful for avoiding simplistic geographic conclusions. Several countries in southern and eastern Africa are at or above the target, including Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, Rwanda and Zambia. At the same time, Madagascar is at 24% and Congo at 40% in the same-year subset. The continent therefore contains some of the strongest and weakest reported values, showing that a regional label cannot substitute for country-level evidence.
| Country | 2025 share who know their HIV status |
|---|---|
| Botswana | 98% |
| Eswatini | 98% |
| South Africa | 96% |
| Rwanda | 96% |
| Kenya | 93% |
| Brazil | 92% |
| Thailand | 90% |
| India | 88% |
| Nigeria | 80% |
| Mexico | 70% |
| Indonesia | 67% |
| Pakistan | 25% |
Selected large or policy-relevant countries illustrate the spread. Brazil is at 92%, Kenya 93% and Thailand 90%; India is at 88% and Nigeria 80%. Mexico is at 70%, Indonesia 67% and Pakistan 25%. These percentages show differences in diagnosis awareness, but they do not on their own identify the causes of those differences or rank the overall quality of national health systems.
Ten countries are below 60%, but the indicator does not explain why
The 2025 values below 60% are Madagascar at 24%, Pakistan 25%, Tunisia 32%, Fiji and Sudan 39%, Congo 40%, Afghanistan 41%, Yemen 43%, Suriname 56% and Comoros 58%. A low value means that a smaller share of the estimated population living with HIV is aware of its positive status. It does not prove that a single factor—such as the number of testing sites, stigma, conflict, funding or service quality—is responsible.
Explaining those gaps would require additional evidence on testing strategies, new diagnoses, geographic and demographic disparities, key-population access, service availability, stigma and discrimination, and the quality of surveillance systems. The indicator measures an outcome in the diagnosis stage. It is not a causal model, and it should not be translated into statements such as “this country does not test for HIV” without supporting programme data.
Twenty-one latest observations are older than 2025
The map keeps the latest retained observation for all 139 countries and areas, but only 118 are from 2025. Australia, Belgium, Colombia, Denmark, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Saint Lucia, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are dated 2024. Azerbaijan, France, Ireland, Montenegro and Norway are dated 2023. Canada is dated 2022, Spain 2021 and Iceland 2018.
| Country | Latest year | Latest value |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | 2024 | 95% |
| Australia | 2024 | 94% |
| Germany | 2024 | 93% |
| France | 2023 | 94% |
| Canada | 2022 | 89% |
| Spain | 2021 | 91% |
| Iceland | 2018 | 71% |
Those older values are useful as the most recent observations retained for each country, but they should not be placed in a 2025 ranking. The map therefore hatches observations older than 2025, while the distribution chart and same-year statistics exclude them. The age of the Iceland observation is particularly important: a 2018 latest value should not be assumed to describe conditions in 2025.
Gray areas mean no retained observation, not zero awareness
A gray country on the map does not mean that 0% of people living with HIV know their status. It means that the 139-row table does not contain a retained latest total observation for that country, or that a very small country is not represented by a separate polygon in the low-resolution world boundary layer. The United States, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea, for example, are not present in this particular 139-row country table and must not be assigned a zero value.
Of the 139 statistical observations, 130 match visible country polygons after ISO-code reconciliation in the low-resolution Natural Earth layer. Small island states such as Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Comoros, Cabo Verde, Saint Lucia, Mauritius, Malta, Singapore and Sao Tome and Principe can be present in the statistics but not appear as clear standalone areas at global scale. The tables and distribution statistics still include their numeric observations.
Diagnosis awareness is only the entrance to the 95-95-95 cascade
WHO’s 2025 global cascade places the first 95 at about 88%, the second 95 at about 89% among people who know their HIV-positive status, and the third 95 at about 95% among people receiving ART. Each stage changes the denominator. That is why the three percentages cannot simply be read as parallel shares of the same population.
A strong first-95 result is necessary because undiagnosed people cannot enter HIV care through a known diagnosis. But progress can still be lost after diagnosis if people are not linked to treatment or do not remain on treatment long enough to achieve viral suppression. Country-level assessment therefore benefits from reading the first, second and third 95 together. This article isolates the first stage so that the diagnosis-awareness gap is not hidden inside a broader treatment statistic.
Data source and calculation method
The country observations come from the WHO Global Health Observatory indicator HIV_STATUSKNOWNHIV, “Percentage of people living with HIV who know their HIV status.” The retained table keeps the latest total or non-disaggregated observation available for each country or area. The map uses all 139 latest observations, while the median, mean, quartiles, band counts and 2025 comparisons are calculated only from the 118 rows whose year is explicitly 2025. Missing values are not converted to zero and older observations are not carried forward.
WHO’s definition uses the number of people living with HIV who know their diagnosis as the numerator and the estimated number of people living with HIV as the denominator. Countries can draw on case surveillance, programme data, surveys and modelled HIV population estimates. The resulting figures are official surveillance and estimation indicators, not a literal census of every person living with HIV. The unweighted country statistics in this article describe the distribution of reported country observations and do not replace WHO’s population-weighted global estimates.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the percentage of the population that received an HIV test?
No. The denominator is the estimated number of people living with HIV, and the numerator is the subset who know their HIV-positive status. It is not a general-population testing rate.
What is the first 95 in the 95-95-95 targets?
It is the target that 95% of people living with HIV know their HIV status. The second 95 concerns ART among people who know their status, and the third concerns viral suppression among people on ART.
Is 80.9% the global HIV diagnosis-awareness rate for 2025?
No. It is a simple unweighted mean across the 118 country observations dated 2025. WHO reports a global 2025 first-95 estimate of about 88% using a different aggregation and estimation framework.
Do gray countries on the map have a value of zero?
No. Gray means there is no retained observation in this 139-row table or no separate visible polygon for a small country at this map scale.
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These published Green Map Insight pages provide additional public-health context. The Tanzania survey guide includes HIV/AIDS within a broader demographic and health survey, while the drinking-water and clean-cooking maps cover other WHO-linked health and living-environment indicators.
- Tanzania 2022 TDHS-MIS Guide – Demographic, Health and Malaria Survey
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- 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.
