An estimated 13.5 million infants received no routine vaccines in 2025, a reduction of roughly 750,000 from the previous year, according to data released by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The improvement leaves the world still almost four million children above the milestone needed to stay on track for halving the number of unimmunised children by 2030. Global coverage with a first dose of the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine reached 90 per cent, and 85 per cent of children completed the three-dose series, both one percentage point higher than in 2024 but one point below the levels recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted health systems.

More than half of all zero-dose children now live in fragile and conflict-affected states, even though those countries account for only around a third of global births. Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Yemen, Ethiopia and Angola are among the ten worst-affected nations. In Syria, DTP coverage fell by six percentage points in a single year, while Yemen recorded the world’s lowest coverage for the first DTP dose. Viewed from sub-Saharan Africa, rapid population growth compounds the challenge: health services must vaccinate ever larger cohorts simply to maintain existing coverage rates. Sudan bucked the trend, registering the largest improvement of any country despite ongoing war, a sign that progress remains possible even in the most adverse conditions.

A growing number of children start vaccine schedules but do not complete them. An estimated 7.3 million infants received a first DTP dose but missed their first measles shot, contributing to stagnant measles coverage of 84 per cent for a first dose and 77 per cent for a second—well below the 95 per cent threshold required to prevent outbreaks. Fifty-seven countries reported large or disruptive measles outbreaks in 2025, and WHO officials noted an “unprecedented” number of diphtheria and cholera outbreaks as well. Health authorities in several middle- and high-income countries are also registering declining vaccination rates, which they attribute to governance challenges, waning political commitment and the spread of vaccine misinformation.

The 2025 data do not yet fully capture the impact of sweeping aid cuts, including those by the United States, because most programmes had already secured funding for the year. The WHO warned that the real effect will materialise in 2026, with surveillance systems already weakened: only 18 national immunisation surveys were completed in 2025, down from 50 a year earlier. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which supports lower-income countries, cautioned that 600,000 future deaths could result from reduced financing. The next factual milestone is the 2026 coverage data, which will reveal whether the funding squeeze has begun to reverse the fragile gains recorded last year.