The latest statistics on AIDS & HIV in the UK were published in March 2008 by the Health Protection Agency.¹

The tables below show that 45% of HIV diagnoses have been among men who have sex with men. However, the number of heterosexually acquired HIV infections diagnosed in the UK has risen dramatically over the last 15 years. In 1999, for the first time, the rate of heterosexually acquired HIV diagnoses overtook the rate of diagnoses in men who have sex with men. In 2006, heterosexually acquired infections accounted for 54% of new HIV diagnoses with known exposure category (the peak was 64% in 2003).

Injecting drug use accounts for around 25% of all HIV diagnoses ever made in Scotland, but only 4% of those made in England. Most of the diagnoses among Scottish injecting drug users were made in the 1980s.

On this page the term 'exposure category' refers to the most probable route of transmission of HIV infection.

How people probably became infected by year:

Year of HIV diagnosis	How HIV infection was probably acquired
	Sex between men*	Sex between men and women	Mother to infant†	Injecting drug use	Blood/tissue products‡
1991 or earlier	12,821	2,266	119	2,311	1,495
1992	1,642	785	55	190	23
1993	1,521	776	66	204	18
1994	1,492	799	68	167	18
1995	1,486	855	60	187	22
1996	1,568	852	60	177	21
1997	1,412	1,022	84	171	30
1998	1,379	1,178	98	136	11
1999	1,392	1,478	80	117	23
2000	1,533	2,032	103	113	25
2001	1,784	2,948	104	135	23
2002	1,919	3,907	120	125	38
2003	2,113	4,674	146	169	38
2004	2,348	4,702	153	138	28
2005	2,548	4,515	123	172	23
2006	2,417	3,931	126	168	35
2007	2,145	2,732	78	110	12
Total	41,520	39,452	1,643	4,790	1,883