Global infant vaccination levels improved slightly last year, the U.N. said on June 15, but warned that drastic funding cuts, conflicts and misinformation were deepening dangerous coverage gaps and allowing outbreaks to surge.
In 2025, 90 percent of infants globally, or nearly 116 million, received at least one dose of the vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP), while 85 percent completed the full three-dose series, according to data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, the United Nations’ health and children’s agencies.
On the surface, those numbers look promising, with both indicators up one percentage point from 2024 and up four points since 2021.
But they remained one point below the levels in 2019, before the COVID pandemic wreaked havoc on global vaccination programs.
This means “millions of vulnerable children are still being left unprotected due to conflict, displacement and poverty,” UNICEF chief Catherine Russell said in a statement.
“No child should suffer from a disease that a simple vaccine can prevent,” she insisted.
According to the data, an estimated 13.5 million so-called zero-dose children did not receive a single shot in their first year during 2025.
That was 750,000 fewer than in 2024, and around 1 million fewer than in 2023.
The U.N. agencies warned that a growing number of children, mainly in poorer countries, start on the vaccine schedule but do not complete it.
Dropouts have contributed to measles coverage stalling at 84 percent of children globally receiving their first measles dose, and just 77 percent receiving the second dose, far short of the 95 percent needed to avert the spread of the highly contagious disease.
“The consequence is being felt now,” O’Brien said, pointing out that “57 countries reported in 2025 large or disruptive measles outbreaks.”
