Vaccination coverage statistics show both broad progress and persistent gaps. In 2025, global coverage reached 85% for the third dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (DTP3), but an estimated 19.6 million children remained unvaccinated or under-vaccinated. In the United States, kindergarten coverage for several required vaccines was about 92% in the 2023–24 school year, while adult coverage varied substantially by vaccine and age group in 2024.
Contents
- Global routine vaccination coverage in 2025
- Zero-dose children and equity gaps in 2024
- Vaccine-specific coverage and country variation
- U.S. kindergarten coverage in 2023–24
- U.S. kindergarten exemptions and reachability
- U.S. adult vaccination coverage in 2024
Global routine vaccination coverage in 2025
The UNICEF DATA report on vaccination and immunization statistics puts global DTP3 coverage at 85% in 2025. DTP3 is a useful routine-immunization measure because it reflects children who received the third dose in the DTP series, rather than only an initial contact with vaccination services. Even at 85%, the global total leaves a large number of children without complete protection in the series.
An estimated 19.6 million children were unvaccinated or under-vaccinated in 2025. Within that total, 13.5 million were classified as zero-dose children, meaning they had not received routine vaccination services represented by the measure. The scale of that group matters because zero-dose status signals a failure to reach children at all, not simply a missed later dose.
Measles coverage provides another view of the global picture. First-dose measles-containing vaccine coverage, or MCV1, was 86% in 2025. Nevertheless, 19 million children did not receive the first dose of a measles-containing vaccine that year. The close relationship between a high global percentage and a large absolute number reflects the size of the global child population: a gap of several percentage points still corresponds to millions of children.
Country variation was wide for the first DTP dose. DTP1 coverage ranged from 49% in Papua New Guinea and Yemen to 99% in 41 countries in 2025. Twenty-five countries had DTP1 coverage below 80%, while 41 countries reported coverage of 99%. These figures describe different national situations within the same global year, so the global average should not be read as a typical country result.
Source: Vaccination and Immunization Statistics from UNICEF DATA, covering 2025 global estimates.
Zero-dose children and equity gaps in 2024
The World Health Organization’s Immunization Agenda 2030 Mid-Term Review 2025 reports that 72 million children were vaccinated in 57 Gavi-eligible countries in 2024. Across Gavi-eligible countries, the number of zero-dose children fell by 500,000 in 2024. The direction of change was positive, but the reduction was modest relative to the overall challenge of reaching children who have had no routine vaccination contact.
Some country changes were larger. India reduced its number of zero-dose children by 700,000 in 2024, while Ethiopia reduced its number by 150,000. These are country-specific reductions in zero-dose children and should not be combined into a global total, because the figures describe separate national changes and the source does not state that they are additive to the reported Gavi-wide change.
Humanitarian need was strongly associated with the remaining gap. Countries requiring a humanitarian response plan represented 24% of the annual birth cohort in 2024 but 51% of zero-dose children. That comparison indicates that children in humanitarian settings were disproportionately represented among those not reached by routine vaccination.
There were also signs of recovery in first-dose delivery. DTP1 coverage increased by at least 5 percentage points in eight countries in 2024. Vietnam recorded a 19-percentage-point increase, Libya a 16-percentage-point increase, and Syria a 9-percentage-point increase. These are changes in DTP1 coverage during 2024, not claims that the countries reached any particular universal target.
Source: Immunization Agenda 2030 Mid-Term Review 2025, reporting 2024 results for Gavi-eligible countries and related indicators.
Vaccine-specific coverage and country variation
Coverage depends on which vaccine, dose, age group, and geography are being measured. In Gavi-eligible countries, DTP3 coverage was 82% in 2024. The average breadth of protection across multiple vaccines in those countries was 73%, which was 4 percentage points below the average breadth of protection in non-Gavi countries. Breadth is therefore a different indicator from a single-vaccine series: it summarizes protection across multiple vaccines rather than reporting only DTP3.
Several countries improved on the DTP3 measure between 2023 and 2024. DTP3 coverage increased by 7 percentage points in Syria and by 7 percentage points in Mali. Haiti recorded a 6-percentage-point increase over the same period. These changes show improvement from each country’s 2023 level, but they do not establish that coverage was equal across the three countries in 2024.
Human papillomavirus vaccination remained a major global gap. Global HPV vaccine coverage was below 50% in 2024, and coverage was below 10% in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region. The measure is vaccine-specific and should not be compared directly with DTP3 as though the vaccines had the same schedule, target population, or delivery setting.
Income group differences were also reported for DTP3. Coverage was 70% in low-income countries in 2024, 8 percentage points below their pre-pandemic baseline. In lower-middle-income countries, DTP3 coverage was 86% in 2024. The baseline comparison applies to the low-income-country figure; it does not provide a pre-pandemic comparison for lower-middle-income countries in the cited data.
| 2024 indicator | Reported coverage | Geography or group |
|---|---|---|
| DTP3 | 82% | Gavi-eligible countries |
| Average breadth of protection | 73% | Gavi countries |
| DTP3 | 70% | Low-income countries |
| DTP3 | 86% | Lower-middle-income countries |
| HPV vaccine | Below 50% | Global |
| HPV vaccine | Below 10% | WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region |
Source: Immunization Agenda 2030 Mid-Term Review 2025.
U.S. kindergarten coverage in 2023–24
The CDC’s report on kindergarten vaccination coverage measured several required vaccines during the 2023–24 school year. National coverage was 92.7% for two doses of MMR, 92.3% for five doses of DTaP, 92.6% for four doses of polio vaccine, and 92.4% for two doses of varicella vaccine.
The recent figures were below earlier national levels reported in the same CDC comparison. Coverage was approximately 95% for each measured vaccine in the 2019–20 school year and approximately 93% for each measured vaccine in 2022–23. Because the earlier values are approximate and refer to school years, they should be interpreted as reported comparison points rather than as precise calculated changes.
State and jurisdiction results varied much more than the national figures suggest. MMR coverage ranged from 79.6% in Idaho to 98.3% in West Virginia. DTaP coverage ranged from 79.5% in Idaho to 98.4% in West Virginia. Polio coverage ranged from 80.1% in Idaho to 98.4% in West Virginia. Varicella coverage ranged from 79.1% in Idaho to 99.7% in West Virginia.
Eleven jurisdictions reported at least 95% MMR coverage among kindergartners in 2023–24. At the other end of the distribution for varicella, 15 jurisdictions reported coverage below 90%. The range across jurisdictions highlights why a national percentage cannot describe local school-level conditions by itself.
Source: Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Children in Kindergarten — United States, 2023–24 School Year, CDC.
U.S. kindergarten exemptions and reachability
Any-vaccine exemption prevalence among U.S. kindergartners was 3.3% in 2023–24, up from 3.0% in 2022–23. In 2023–24, medical exemptions accounted for 0.2% of kindergartners and nonmedical exemptions for 3.1%.
The national average concealed a wide jurisdictional range. Exemption prevalence ranged from below 0.1% in West Virginia to 14.3% in Idaho. Exemptions from at least one required vaccine exceeded 5% in 14 states. These figures concern exemption status, not whether every exempt student would otherwise have received every required vaccine.
The CDC also reported a reachability measure for MMR. Four percent of U.S. kindergarten students were neither fully vaccinated with MMR nor exempt in 2023–24. If those students could be reached, potentially achievable national MMR coverage was 96.8%. Thirteen jurisdictions could not potentially achieve at least 95% MMR coverage because of exemptions. This potential figure is an estimate of reachable coverage under the stated condition, not observed coverage.
Administrative timing affected some enrollment records. Provisional enrollment or grace-period attendance was 2.6% among kindergartners in the 31 reporting states in 2023–24. This statistic applies only to those reporting states and should not be generalized to all U.S. kindergartners.
Source: Coverage with Selected Vaccines and Exemption Rates Among Children in Kindergarten — United States, 2023–24 School Year, CDC.
U.S. adult vaccination coverage in 2024
Adult vaccination coverage varied by vaccine and eligibility group in the CDC’s 2024 National Health Interview Survey results. Pneumococcal vaccination coverage was 24.1% among U.S. adults aged 19–64 years at increased risk, compared with 64.7% among all adults aged 65 years or older. Among at-risk adults aged 19–49 years, coverage was 15.8%, while coverage among all adults aged 50–64 years was 19.7%.
Herpes zoster coverage was higher but still far from universal. Any herpes zoster vaccination coverage was 41.7% among adults with an indication for vaccination, 43.6% among all adults aged 50 years or older, and 51.1% among all adults aged 60 years or older. At least two recombinant zoster vaccine doses were reported by 28.7% of all adults aged 50 years or older.
Hepatitis A coverage was 28.4% among all U.S. adults aged 19 years or older. Adult travelers had coverage of 36.8%, compared with 22.3% among nontravelers. The traveler comparison describes two groups within the 2024 adult population; it does not indicate that travel alone explains the difference.
The longer-term patterns were mixed. Coverage with at least two recombinant zoster vaccine doses among adults aged 50 years or older increased from 1.1% in 2018 to 28.7% in 2024. By contrast, pneumococcal vaccination coverage among adults aged 65 years or older declined at an average of 0.7 percentage points per year from 2018 through 2024. The zoster figures describe growth in a multi-dose measure, while the pneumococcal figure describes an average annual decline, so they should not be treated as directly equivalent trends.
Source: Vaccination Coverage among Adults in the United States, National Health Interview Survey, 2024, CDC.