The HIV epidemic — which started in the early 1980s and progressed rapidly in the 1990s — has had lasting impacts that continue today. More than 800,000 people still die from HIV/AIDS every year.

But some countries were hit much harder than others.

In the chart, you can see the share of all deaths in a given year caused by HIV/AIDS in four countries that were particularly badly affected.

At the height of the epidemic, more than half of all deaths in Zimbabwe and Botswana, and over 40% in South Africa and Namibia, were caused by the disease.

Thankfully, interventions to prevent the spread of HIV and treatments such as antiretroviral therapy have reduced death rates across the world. But about one in five deaths in these countries was still caused by AIDS in 2023.