Australia recorded 753 HIV diagnoses in 2025, a quarter fewer than the 1,006 recorded in 2016.
Preliminary estimates show the country achieved the UNAIDS 95-95-95 HIV testing, treatment and viral suppression targets, though the progress has not reached every community equally.
The Kirby Institute at UNSW Sydney presented the figures on Tuesday 15 September 2026 at the joint Australasian HIV&AIDS and Sexual and Reproductive Health Conferences in Melbourne.
Once population growth is counted, the rate of HIV diagnoses fell by about a third over the decade.
In 2016 around four in every 100,000 Australians were diagnosed, and in 2025 it was closer to three.
The United Nations HIV agency, UNAIDS, set fast-track global targets for HIV testing and treatment by 2025.
Of all people living with HIV, 95 per cent should have been diagnosed. Of those diagnosed, 95 per cent should be on treatment.
Of those on treatment, 95 per cent should have the virus suppressed, meaning it cannot be transmitted to others.
The Kirby Institute said preliminary estimates show Australia achieved all three targets in 2025.
That is an estimate, and the final figures may differ.
Dr Skye McGregor, an epidemiologist at the Kirby Institute and the report's lead, called reaching the targets nationally an incredible achievement.
First Nations Australians, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, were diagnosed at 1.9 times the rate of Australian-born non-Indigenous people in 2025.
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In 2016 the figure was 1.6 times.
There were 37 diagnoses among First Nations people in 2025, up from an average of 24 cases a year over the three years before and the second-highest number of diagnoses over the past decade.
Robert Monaghan, manager of the Yandamanjang First Nations Health Research Program at the Kirby Institute, said the response must be “driven by communities, not only delivered to them.”
Kim Gates, described by Australian Associated Press (AAP) as leading the Kirby Institute's First Nations point-of-care testing program, told AAP that stronger testing by Aboriginal health services may have contributed to the higher numbers.
She said people in remote communities have poorer access to health services, and that some health workers choose who to test based on assumptions about who is at risk.
Among gay and bisexual men, the group most affected by HIV in Australia, diagnoses fell 36 per cent over the decade but plateaued between 2024 and 2025.
Diagnoses among Australian-born men almost halved, from 442 to 229. Among overseas-born men they fell from 316 to 255, a decline of 19 per cent.
A third of diagnoses in 2025 were late.
A late diagnosis means the person may have been living with HIV for four or more years without knowing their HIV status and may be experiencing HIV-related illnesses.
Over the past five years, 58 per cent of diagnoses among heterosexual men and 46 per cent among heterosexual women were late, compared with about a third of diagnoses among gay and bisexual men.
The figures count diagnoses and show how the trend has changed over time, but they do not establish which specific measures caused the decline.
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