Tuberculosis
Age-standardized death rate from Tuberculosis across countries, with trends from 1990 to 2021.
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This page shows age-standardized death rates for tuberculosis across 204 countries, sourced from the IHME Global Burden of Disease Study 2023 via Our World in Data. Age-standardized rates adjust for differences in age structure between populations, enabling fair comparisons across countries and over time. The data spans from 1990 to the latest available year.
Tuberculosis mortality patterns are shaped by healthcare access, public health infrastructure, socioeconomic conditions, and disease-specific prevention and treatment programs. Explore regional breakdowns, country comparisons, and historical trends using the tools and pages linked below.
Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, an airborne bacterium that primarily infects the lungs but can disseminate to virtually any organ. Roughly one-quarter of the global population carries latent TB infection, of whom 5-10% will develop active disease in their lifetime — a risk dramatically amplified by HIV co-infection, diabetes, malnutrition, and immunosuppression. TB kills through progressive cavitary lung destruction, haemoptysis, respiratory failure, and systemic wasting. It remains the leading infectious disease killer worldwide in non-pandemic years, claiming approximately 1.3 million lives annually among HIV-negative individuals and an additional 167,000 among people living with HIV. Eight countries account for two-thirds of the global burden: India, Indonesia, China, the Philippines, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The emergence of multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) and extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) threatens decades of progress, with treatment success rates for drug-resistant strains remaining well below those of drug-susceptible disease.
TB control rests on early case detection through symptom screening and molecular diagnostics (GeneXpert MTB/RIF), directly observed therapy short-course (DOTS) for drug-susceptible TB, and newer regimens like BPaL (bedaquiline-pretomanid-linezolid) for resistant strains. The BCG vaccine, developed over a century ago, provides partial protection against severe childhood TB but limited efficacy against pulmonary TB in adults. Preventive therapy with isoniazid or rifapentine for latent TB infection is critical for high-risk groups, particularly people living with HIV.
Across the 210 countries tracked in this dataset, tuberculosis accounts for an average of 1.5% of total deaths. The highest share is recorded in Central African Republic at 10.6%, while Bermuda records the lowest at 0.01%. These figures reflect the most recent available data and illustrate the vast geographic variation in tuberculosis mortality burden.