ABSTRACT Objective: To analyze the spatial pattern of AIDS mortality and social factors associated with its occurrence. Methods: An ecological study that considered 955 AIDS deaths of residents in Piauí, reported in the Mortality Information System (MIS) from 2007 to 2015. Non-spatial and spatial regression models were used to identify social determinants of AIDS mortality, with a significance of 5%. Results: The predictors of AIDS mortality were illiteracy rate in males (p = 0.020), proportion of households with water supply (p = 0.015), percentage of people in households with inadequate walls (p = 0.022), percentage of people in households vulnerable to poverty and in whom no one has completed primary education (p = 0.000) and percentage of people in households vulnerable to poverty and dependent on the elderly (p = 0.009). Conclusion: Social indicators related to education, job and income generation and housing were associated with AIDS mortality.