Around one in 10 South Africans are living with HIV, according to a report released by Statistics SA. Statistician general Pali Lehohla, speaking at the release of the mid-year population estimates report in Pretoria, said 6.19 million South Africans, 11.2%, are living with the disease, out of an estimated total population of 54.95 million people.
The number of South Africans infected with HIV has increased by 2.17 million since 2002, when 4.02 million South Africans were living with the virus. However, infections were dropping, with the incidence rate for people between the ages of 15 and 49 declining. This could be seen in the reduction of infections for those aged between 15 and 24. In 2002, 6.75% of this group were infected with HIV, dropping to 5.59% in 2015. There had been a gradual drop in Aids-related deaths since 2002.