WHO and UNICEF say 13.5 million children received no vaccines in their first year in 2025
The Facts
- WHO and UNICEF's 2025 immunization estimates say 13.5 million children globally received no vaccines in their first year of life.
- In 2025, about 90% of infants worldwide, or nearly 116 million, received at least one dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine.
- About 85% of infants worldwide, or roughly 110 million children, completed the full three-dose DTP series in 2025.
- The DTP1 and DTP3 coverage indicators each rose by one percentage point from 2024, but remained below 2019 levels.
- The number of zero-dose children fell from the previous year, but WHO and UNICEF say many children still remain outside routine immunization services.
- The agencies warn that remaining coverage gaps matter because they can increase the risk of outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
- India was estimated to have 679,000 zero-dose children in 2025, down from 909,000 in 2024.
Context
What does 'zero-dose' mean in this report?
It refers to children who did not receive a single routine vaccine during their first year of life Hindustan Times,Free Press Journal.
Why do WHO and UNICEF use DTP coverage in these estimates?
The report uses first-dose and third-dose coverage for diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis as key indicators of whether children are being reached by routine immunization services and whether they complete the basic series Deutsche Welle,who.int,Express Tribune.
What factors are cited as holding back further progress?
The sources say conflicts, misinformation and funding cuts are contributing to coverage gaps and making it harder to sustain or expand immunization gains Deutsche Welle,Express Tribune.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Coverage improved but remains incomplete enough to leave millions of children outside routine immunization, sustaining real outbreak risk despite broad global reach.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about children still excluded from basic protection, or about routine immunization systems steadily delivering gains to most families worldwide.
How left and right read it
The headline here is not the modest uptick in coverage, but that 13.5 million children still received no vaccines in their first year and many remain outside routine immunization services. When protection rises by only one point yet still sits below 2019, the cost falls on children left least reached by basic public health systems, with wider outbreak risk for everyone.
The striking fact is that routine immunization is still reaching the vast majority of infants worldwide: about 90% got at least one DTP dose, roughly 85% completed the full series, and both measures improved from 2024. That matters because durable public-health gains come from steady, functioning delivery that reaches more families year over year, even as the remaining gaps still carry real outbreak risk.
The receipts — all 48 sources
Independent coverage (48)
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