India met the World Health Organization (WHO)’s first tuberculosis death-reduction target in 2025, five years late, while still accounting for nearly one-quarter of deaths worldwide, the agency’s new report says.
WHO’s Global Tuberculosis Report 2026, published Nov. 12, estimated that 1.13 million people died from TB worldwide in 2025, down from 1.18 million in 2024 and 35% below the 2015 level. That total included 137,000 deaths among people living with HIV. An estimated 10.6 million people developed TB in 2025. The report’s estimates draw primarily on data from 187 countries and areas, representing more than 99% of the world’s population and TB cases.
The End TB Strategy set a 35% reduction in TB deaths from 2015 levels as a 2020 target. India reached that milestone five years later and was among four high-burden countries outside Africa and Europe to do so by 2025, alongside Bangladesh, China and Viet Nam. India nevertheless accounted for 23% of TB deaths worldwide that year.
For India’s 2020–2025 estimates, WHO applied a country-specific model that accounts for pandemic-era disruptions. The agency said its estimate uses published Sample Registration System data that India has not officially submitted to WHO.
The report’s cost findings come from surveys in 40 countries conducted at different times. Their pooled average was 47% for people treated for TB and their households facing costs above 20% of annual household income; the surveys span 2015 through August 2026, so this is not a 2025 global estimate. The End TB Strategy aims to bring that share to zero.
At the 2023 U.N. high-level meeting on TB, member states set 2027 targets for 90% coverage of quality-assured diagnosis and treatment and 100% initial testing with a WHO-recommended rapid diagnostic test.
