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Data

Condom use among men who have sex with men

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HIV/AIDS

What you should know about this indicator

  • Consistent and correct condom use is critical for men who have sex with men, as it significantly reduces HIV transmission risk—particularly for anal intercourse, which carries a high transmission probability.
  • Some men who have sex with men may also have female partners, so regular condom use helps prevent potential HIV spread to them as well.
  • Reporting condom use during last anal sex is often used as a proxy measure for habitual condom use, and data collection should be done confidentially, preferably in collaboration with trusted community organizations.

Condoms can substantially reduce the risk of sexually transmitting HIV. Consistently and correctly using condoms is therefore important for men who have sex with men because of the high risk of HIV transmission during unprotected anal sex. In addition, men who have anal sex with other men may also have female partners, who could become infected as well. Condom use with the most recent male partner is considered a reliable indicator of longer-term behaviour.

Note: countries with generalized epidemics may also have a concentrated subepidemic among gay men and other men who have sex with men. If so, calculating and reporting on this indicator for this population would be valuable.

Method of measurement: Behavioural surveillance or other special surveys

In a behavioural survey of a sample of gay men and other men who have sex with men, respondents are asked about sexual partnerships in the past six months, about anal sex within these partnerships and about condom use when they last had anal sex. Condom use applies whether the respondent is the receptive and insertive partner.

Whenever possible, data for gay men and other men who have sex with men should be collected with civil society organizations that have worked closely with this population in the field.

Access to gay men and other men who have sex with men and the data collected from them must remain confidential and secure.

More details: https://indicatorregistry.unaids.org/indicator/men-who-have-sex-men-condom-use

Condom use among men who have sex with men
Share of men who have sex with men reporting using a condom the last time they had anal sex with a male partner.
Source
Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
January 22, 2025
Date range
2011–2020
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

UNAIDS leads the world's most extensive data collection on HIV epidemiology, programme coverage and finance and publishes the most authoritative and up-to-date information on the HIV epidemic.

In some cases there is no data for some country and year. This can be a result of very small epidemics among women in the reproductive age which makes estimation of the mother to child transmission very unstable. Another reason for missing data is that relevant authorities may have asked UNAIDS not to share their estimates.

This UNAIDS 2024 report brings together new data and case studies which demonstrate that the decisions and policy choices taken by world leaders this year will decide the fate of millions of lives and whether the world's deadliest pandemic is overcome.

Retrieved on
January 22, 2025
Retrieved from
https://aidsinfo.unaids.org/
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
The urgency of now: AIDS at a crossroads. Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS; 2024. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO. Full report: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2024-unaids-global-aids-update_en.pdf

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Condom use among men who have sex with men”, part of the following publication: Max Roser and Hannah Ritchie (2023) - “HIV / AIDS”. Data adapted from Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/condom-use-between-men [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (2024) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Condom use among men who have sex with men – ” [dataset]. Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, “Global AIDS Update” [original data]. Retrieved March 10, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/condom-use-between-men