Does AIDS have a significant impact on population growth?
The high degree of HIV prevalence worldwide has had an impact on population growth rates. In the early 1990s, few experts predicted the current level of HIV/AIDS cases. In fact, many believed that AIDS would have little or no impact on population growth. At that time, it was difficult to predict or imagine that there would be any country with 25 percent of the population between the ages of 15 to 49 living with HIV. Since the bubonic plague of the 14th century, no epidemic has had as strong an influence on population growth as HIV/AIDS. The plague, or Black Death, killed an estimated 25 million to 35 million people in Europe alone, a number that represented approximately one-third of its population. According to recent estimates by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), 33.2 million people were living with HIV in 2007. Percent of World’s HIV/AIDS Cases, 2005 Note: Numbers are rounded. Source: United Nations Population Division,
