TB Statistics

National TB statistics

With national TB statistics there will generally be two main types of TB statistics. There will be reports of actual cases, which is the minimum number of people affected, but these TB statistics are of limited use if many cases go unreported. There are also estimates, which are based on surveys, and they are often used to give the proportion of people living with TB. There will always be various assumptions made in compiling estimates, which is why they can sometimes provide very different figures from the TB statistics based on reported cases.

TB statistics and indeed the statistics for other diseases, will often refer to the incidence and prevalence of a disease. The TB incidence is the number of new cases of active TB disease in a population during a certain time period (usually a year). By contrast the TB prevalence is the number of people in the population who are living with active TB. Prevalence is usually, but not always given as a percentage of the population.1

Global TB statistics

  • There were an estimated 8.8 million incident cases of TB in 2010.
  • There were an estimated 1.45 million deaths. Of these 1.1 million were among HIV negative people and 0.35 million were among HIV positive people.
  • In 2009 there were an estimated 9.7 million children who were orphans as a results of their parents dying of TB.2

TBFacts.org has more about the control of global TB.

Regional TB statistics

All countries are asked to report their TB figures to the World Health Organisation (WHO), who then use these notified figures to help produce estimated total TB statistics for each country, region and globally. Globally it is thought that only about 65% of TB cases are notified. The WHO figures for the estimated incidence, prevalence and number of deaths from TB in each WHO region are given below.3

Estimated WHO Regional TB statistics for 2010
Region Incidence Prevalence Deaths Population
Africa 2,300,000 2,800,000 250,000 836,970,000
Americas 270,000 330,000 20,000 933,447,000
Eastern Mediterranean 650,000 1,000,000 95,000 596,747,000
Europe 420,000 560,000 61,000 896,480,000
South-East Asia 3,500,000 5,000,000 500,000 1,807,594,000
Western Pacific 1,700,000 2,500,000 130,000 1,798,335,000
Global Total 8,840,000 12,190,000 1,056,000 6,869,573,000

The figures for the number of deaths exclude the deaths of people who had both TB and HIV infection at the time of their death, as these are internationally classified as HIV deaths.

TB statistics for "high burden" countries

Of all the countries that report their TB statistics to WHO, there are 22 countries that are sometimes referred to as the TB "high burden" countries, and they have been prioritized at a global level since 2000. There are currently 22 of these countries and between them they accounted for 81% of all estimated cases of TB worldwide in 2010.4

Statistics for estimated TB in "High Burden" Countries 2010
Country Incidence Prevalence Deaths Population
Afghanistan 59,000 110,000 12,000 31,412,000
Bangladesh 330,000 610,000 64,000 148,692,000
Brazil 85,000 92,000 5,000 194,946,000
Cambodia 62,000 93,000 8,600 14,138,000
China 1,000,000 1,500,000 54,000 1,341,335,000
DR Congo 220,000 350,000 36,000 65,966,000
Ethiopia 220,000 330,000 29,000 82,950,000
India 2,300,000 3,100,000 320,000 1,224,614,000
Indonesia 450,000 690,000 64,000 239,871
Kenya 120,000 110,000 6,900 40,513
Mozambique 130,000 110,000 11,000 23,391,000
Myanmar 130,000 110,000 54,000 47,963,000
Nigeria 210,000 320,000 33,000 158,423,000
Pakistan 400,000 630,000 58,000 173,593,000
Philippines 260,000 470,000 31,000 93,261,000
Russian Federation 150,000 190,000 26,000 142,958,000
South Africa 490,000 400,000 25,000 50,133,000
Thailand 94,000 130,000 11,000 69,122,000
Uganda 70,000 64,000 5,100 33,425,000
UR Tanzania 79,000 82,000 5,800 44,841,000
Viet Nam 180,000 290,000 29,000 87,848,000
Zimbabwe 80,000 51,000 3,400 12,571,000
Total for High Burden Countries 7,200,000 10,000,000 860,000 4,321,967,000

There are more TB Statistics for India.

TB statistics for MDR TB 2010

Multi drug resistant TB (MDR TB) is the name given to TB when the bacteria that are causing it are resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampicin, the most effective TB drugs. In 2010 the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that there were globally 290,000 cases of MDR-TB among those cases of pulmonary TB that were reported to them.5 It was also estimated that in total there were 650,000 cases of MDR TB among the worlds 12 million prevalent cases of TB.6

There are 27 "high burden" countries for MDR-TB. These are countries where there are at least 4,000 cases of MDR TB each year, and/or at least 10% of newly registered TB cases are of MDR TB.

The table below shows the estimated number of cases for each "high burden" country, as well as figures for each of the WHO regions. It should however be noted, that these are only the estimates for the number of cases of MDR-TB amongst those cases of pulmonary TB notified to WHO. There will in addition have been many cases of MDR amongst those cases of TB which were either not detected and/or not notified.7

Statistics for MDR TB in "High Burden" Countries and WHO Regions 2010
Country/Region Estimated cases of MDR-TB Notified cases of MDR-TB Cases Enrolled on Treatment for MDR-TB
Armenia 260 177 154
Azerbaijan 1,700 63 286
Bangladesh 5,900 184 339
Belarus 1,700 1,576 200
Bulgaria 94 56 56
China 63,000 2,792 1,222
DR Congo 2,700 87 191
Estonia 76 63 80
Ethiopia 2,100 140 120
Georgia 680 359 618
India 64,000 2,967 2,967
Indonesia 6,100 182 142
Kazakhstan 6,400 7,387 5,705
Kyrgyzstan 1,000 566 566
Latvia 100 87 87
Lithuania - - -
Myanmar 5,100 192 192
Nigeria 2,400 21 23
Pakistan 9,700 444 44
Philippines 8,800 522 548
Republic of Moldova 1,700 1,015 791
Russian Federation 31,000 13,692 13,692
South Africa 9,100 7,386 5,402
Tajikistan 1,400 333 245
Ukraine 6,600 5,333 3,870
Uzbekistan 3,100 1,023 628
Viet Nam 3,600 101 101
Total for MDR-TB High Burden Countries 250,000 46,748 38,652
Africa 32,000 9,504 7,406
Americas 6,200 2,158 3,186
Eastern Mediterranean 14,000 829 1,006
Europe 53,000 32,616 27,844
South-East Asia 88,000 3,779 3,901
Western Pacific 77,000 4,222 2,210
Global Total for MDR-TB 290,000 53,108 45,553

There are more TB Statistics for India.

Where next?

Read the latest TB news, or learn about drug resistant TB.

Major Source

Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO, Geneva, 2011 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/

References

  1. "Basic Statistics: About Incidence, Prevalence, Morbidity, and Mortality - Statistics Teaching Tools", Department of Health, New York State www.health.ny.gov/diseases/chronic/basicstat.htm
  2. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO, Geneva, 2011, 9 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/
  3. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO, Geneva, 2011, 12 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/
  4. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011, WHO, Geneva, 2011, 12 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/
  5. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011", WHO, Geneva, 2011, 38 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/
  6. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011", WHO, Geneva, 2011, 20 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/
  7. "Global Tuberculosis Control 2011", WHO, Geneva, 2011, 38 www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/

Top of the page