Michael McHale , 2025-06-25 05:00:00
Lancet study found that 91 per cent of children here were inoculated in 2023, with almost 5,000 having not received a single vaccination
Ireland had the second-lowest level of childhood vaccination coverage in western Europe in 2023, a new study has revealed.
Among countries around the world that are considered ‘high-income’, Ireland came third for regions with low immunisation among children.
The paper, published in The Lancet, found that globally, life-saving childhood vaccination coverage has stalled in recent decades, leaving millions of children at risk for deadly diseases.
In Western Europe, Austria had recorded the lowest level of childhood immunisation in 2023. However, Ireland was just behind Austria, with 91 per cent of children here fully vaccinated.
Across wider Europe, Ireland had the sixth-lowest level of coverage, with a rate was marginally higher than North Macedonia (90.3 per cent) and Ukraine (90.1 per cent). Moldova recorded the lowest level of childhood immunisation in 2023, at 83.9 per cent.
When comparing the actual numbers of children who have not received a single vaccination – known as zero-dose children – Ireland had the eight highest amount in Europe.
In 2023 a total of 4,942 children here were recorded as not having received a single vaccination, compared to 6,652 in Israel, 7,542 in Austria and 10, 487 in France. The UK recorded the highest number of zero-dose children, at 39,894.
Looking at high-income countries around the world, Argentina had the lowest vaccination coverage among children, at just 77.5 per cent. The South American country was followed by Austria and Ireland.
The study, which was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and GAVI, found that, globally, between 1980 and 2023, vaccine coverage doubled against diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis), measles, polio, and tuberculosis.
There was a 75 per cent global decline in the number of children who had never received a routine childhood vaccine (also known as zero-dose children), falling from 58.8 million in 1980 to 14.7 million in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.
But since 2010, progress has stalled or reversed in many countries, with measles vaccination declining in 100 of 204 countries between 2010 and 2019, while 21 of 36 high-income countries experienced declines in coverage for at least one vaccine dose against diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, polio, or tuberculosis.
The pandemic further exacerbated challenges to childhood vaccination coverage. In 2023, there were an estimated 15.7 million zero-dose children, who had received no doses of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccine in their first year of life, with more than half living in just eight countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa (53 per cent) and South Asia (13 per cent).
The authors stressed that global immunisation goals for 2030 will not be met without targeted, equitable immunisation strategies, alongside primary healthcare strengthening and efforts to tackle vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.
“Despite the monumental efforts of the past 50 years, progress has been far from universal. Large numbers of children remain under- and un-vaccinated”, said senior study author Dr Jonathan Mosser from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), University of Washington, USA.
“Routine childhood vaccinations are among the most powerful and cost-effective public health interventions available, but persistent global inequalities, challenges from the COVID pandemic, and the growth of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy have all contributed to faltering immunisation progress.
“These trends increase the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, including measles, polio, and diphtheria, underscoring the critical need for targeted improvements to ensure that all children can benefit from lifesaving immunisations.”
In recent years, rising numbers of wild-type polio cases have been reported in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and there is an ongoing polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea, where less than half of the population is immunised.
Last year there was a nearly tenfold increase in measles infections recorded in the European Union and the European Economic Area. The ongoing measles outbreak in the USA reached over 1,000 confirmed cases in 30 states in May 2025, surpassing the total number of cases in 2024.
In 2023, more than half of the world’s 15.7 million unvaccinated children were living in just eight countries, primarily in sub-Saharan Africa (53 per cent) and South Asia (13 per cent).
The analysis indicates that accelerated progress will be necessary to achieve the 2030 target of halving the number of zero-dose children compared to 2019 levels, with only 18 of 204 countries and territories estimated to have already met this target as of 2023.
“The challenge now is how to improve vaccine delivery and uptake in areas of low coverage,” said lead author Dr. Emily Haeuser.
“The diversity of challenges and barriers to immunisation vary widely between countries and within communities, with rising numbers of displaced people and growing disparities due to armed conflict, political volatility, economic uncertainty, climate crises, and vaccine misinformation and hesitancy, underscoring the need for new, tailored solutions.”