A total of 112,883 HIV diagnoses were reported across 47 countries in the WHO European Region for 2023, marking a slight crude rate increase to 12.7 per 100,000 population.
While 47 out of 53 countries in the WHO European Region submitted data showing 112,883 total diagnoses, the European Union and European Economic Area accounted for 24,731 of those cases.
Regional Variations and Decade-High Diagnoses Across Europe
Across the wider WHO European Region, 21 out of 47 reporting countries recorded an increase in HIV diagnoses in 2023 compared to the previous year. Several individual nations—specifically Azerbaijan, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Malta, and Montenegro—recorded their highest single-year volume of HIV diagnoses over the past decade.
The overall regional crude rate reached 12.7 HIV diagnoses per 100,000 population in 2023. This reflects a 2.4% increase over the 12.4 per 100,000 population rate observed in 2022. Despite this upward tick, the 2023 rate stays 19.6% below the 15.8 per 100,000 population rate recorded in 2019 before the onset of the coronavirus disease pandemic.
EU and EEA Trends Contrast With the Wider Region
Within EU/EEA countries, the epidemiological picture differs notably from the rest of the region. The 2023 diagnostic rate for the EU/EEA stood at 5.3 per 100,000 population, marking a 15.9% decrease from the 6.3 per 100,000 rate documented in 2014.
However, when isolating newly reported cases and removing previous positive diagnoses, the EU/EEA rate climbed by 11.8% between 2022 and 2023, shifting from 3.4 to 3.8 per 100,000 population. Furthermore, data comparing total diagnoses to estimated new infections over the past decade show divergent trajectories. Across the wider European Region, an increasingly larger number of individuals acquire HIV infections than receive formal diagnoses, pointing to a growing population living with undiagnosed HIV. Conversely, the EU/EEA trajectory shows slightly more diagnoses reported than estimated new infections.
Diverging Drivers Behind 2023 Diagnostic Changes
The factors pushing diagnostic numbers upward in 2023 vary distinctly by subregion. In the eastern part of the WHO European Region, countries experienced a clear rebound in HIV testing and case detection as the coronavirus disease pandemic subsided. Public health authorities in the east focused heavily on boosting case detection and implementing new testing policies designed to close the diagnostic gap for undiagnosed individuals.
In the EU/EEA and western parts of the region, the growth in diagnoses is linked to expanded testing services alongside increased diagnoses among migrants, particularly those arriving from high-prevalence countries. Meanwhile, the centre of the region moved in the opposite direction, registering a decrease in total HIV diagnoses in 2023 compared to 2022. This central decrease was driven primarily by a reduction in previously positive diagnoses, even though six out of 15 countries in the centre still reported year-over-year increases.
