Global childhood vaccination rates climb amid rising outbreaks and conflict

"The gains that we are celebrating now at this moment are quite fragile," said UNICEF's global immunization chief, Ephrem Lemango, cautioning that they "can be eroded very easily".

The number of "zero-dose" or unvaccinated children fell to 13.5 million in 2025 from 14.2 million in 2024, but was still nearly 4 million higher than the level needed to stay on track to halve the 2019 total by 2030.

Global childhood vaccination rates rose slightly in 2025, yet millions of children remained unprotected against preventable diseases as conflict, funding cuts and growing outbreaks undermined immunization efforts.

According to the latest immunization estimates released by the World Health Organization and UNICEF on Wednesday, 90% of infants globally, or nearly 116 million, received at least one dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough vaccine, known as DTP, in 2025, while 85% completed all three recommended doses.

WHO said the global funding cuts, which began in early 2025, have not yet shown up in the data but raises concerns on the 2026 outlook.

"We are seeing real cracks in the system now for immunization, and we are previewing big risks that are yet to come," said WHO's director of the Department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals, Kate O'Brien.

WHO is already seeing the impact of some of these cracks in the form of more measles, diphtheria and cholera outbreaks, O'Brien said.

Lemango said more than half of the world's unvaccinated children live in conflict-hit countries such as Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Palestine, despite accounting for only about one-third of global births.