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4d ago

Global Childhood Vaccination Coverage Falls, 15.7 Million Children Remain Unvaccinated

Experts warn that failure to invest in vaccine delivery coupled with rampant misinformation threatens the WHO’s 90% coverage target by 2030

FILE - A health worker administers a polio vaccine to a child in Karachi, Pakistan, Jan. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Fareed Khan, File)
Between 2010 and 2019, there were declines in at least one kind of vaccination in 21 of 36 high-income countries measured in a new study.
A 8 year-old child receives their first dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at the Beaumont Health offices in Southfield, Michigan on November 5, 2021. (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP) (Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
More than half of the world's completely unvaccinated children live in just eight countries, research finds

Overview

  • An estimated 15.7 million children remained zero-dose in 2023, with more than half living in Nigeria, India, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Indonesia and Brazil.
  • Global immunisation rates have stalled since 2010 and Covid-19 disruptions left 15.6 million children without full diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis or measles vaccination between 2020 and 2023.
  • Measles cases surged to over 32,000 in the European Union in 2024 and the United States has recorded more than 1,000 cases with two deaths in 2025, while polio outbreaks rose in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea.
  • Vaccine misinformation and hesitancy drove declines in at least one routine vaccine dose in 21 of 36 high-income countries, reversing progress against diseases like measles and pertussis.
  • Routine childhood immunisations have prevented about 154 million deaths since 1980, but experts say transformational improvements in equity and health-system investment are needed to hit WHO’s 2030 goal.