UN reports rise in child vaccine coverage, gaps remain

Global childhood vaccination rates showed modest improvement in 2025, but millions of children remain unprotected as funding cuts, conflict, and misinformation threaten to reverse fragile gains, according to new United Nations data released on July 15, 2026.

The latest estimates from the World Health Organization and UNICEF show that 90% of infants worldwide, or nearly 116 million, received at least one dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) vaccine last year. Eighty-five percent completed the full three-dose series. Both figures represent a one-percentage-point increase from 2024, yet coverage remains one point below pre-pandemic 2019 levels, having stagnated within a narrow range for over a decade.

Beneath the global averages lie significant and dangerous gaps. An estimated 13.5 million "zero-dose" children received no vaccines in their first year of life in 2025, a decline of 750,000 from the previous year. However, progress is offset by a growing number of children who start but do not finish immunization schedules. Globally, 7.3 million infants received their first DTP dose but dropped out before receiving their first measles shot.