A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF says that 14.3 million children around the world have never received any vaccine.
This number is 4 million higher than the goal set for 2024 and 1.4 million more than in 2019, which is when progress started to be measured.
The report shared on Tuesday said that in 2024, about 89% of babies worldwide got at least one dose of a vaccine for diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough, and 85% got all three doses.
Compared to 2023, about 171,000 more children got at least one vaccine, and 1 million more finished all three doses.
Even though these improvements are small, they show that countries are trying to protect children despite many difficulties.
Still, nearly 20 million babies missed at least one dose last year, including 14.3 million children who never got any vaccine at all. This is 4 million more than the 2024 goal and 1.4 million more than in 2019.
The WHO leader, Dr. Tedros Ghebreyesus, said vaccines save lives and help families and countries grow stronger.
He said it is good to see more children getting vaccines, but there is still a lot to do. Cuts in funding and wrong information about vaccine safety threaten the progress made over many years.
WHO will keep working with partners to help countries find local solutions and invest more money to make sure all children get vaccines.
The report also said children miss vaccines because of many reasons like poor access to health services, supply problems, conflicts, and wrong ideas about vaccines.
Data from 195 countries show 131 countries have reached at least 90% of children with the first vaccine dose since 2019, but this number has not grown much.
Only 17 countries that had less than 90% coverage in 2019 improved in the last five years, while 47 countries are stuck or doing worse.
Among these, 22 countries that had over 90% coverage in 2019 have since fallen behind.The data shows that conflicts and crises can quickly undo vaccine progress. One-quarter of the world’s babies live in 26 countries with conflict or crises, but these babies make up half of the unvaccinated children worldwide.
In half of these countries, the number of unvaccinated children grew fast, from 3.6 million in 2019 to 5.4 million in 2024, showing the need for vaccines to be part of humanitarian aid.
Vaccination coverage has improved in 57 low-income countries supported by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, reducing the number of unvaccinated children by about 650,000 last year.However, some richer countries that used to keep coverage above 90% are starting to see declines.
Even small drops in vaccine coverage can increase the chance of disease outbreaks and add pressure to health systems.
The good news is more children are getting life-saving vaccines, but millions still lack protection, and this is worrying.UNICEF’s leader, Catherine Russell, said we must act now to overcome problems like shrinking health budgets, weak health systems, wrong information, and conflict barriers because no child should die from preventable diseases.
Despite challenges, countries, especially those supported by Gavi, are adding more vaccines for diseases like HPV, meningitis, pneumococcal disease, polio, and rotavirus.
For example, many countries have increased HPV vaccine coverage, helping global coverage grow by 4% last year.In 2024, 31% of eligible girls worldwide got at least one HPV vaccine dose, mostly with single-dose schedules.
This is far from the 90% goal for 2030 but much better than the 17% in 2019.Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, said lower-income countries protected more children than ever before last year, but population growth, conflicts, and fragile situations make it hard to reach all children.
She said governments and partners must keep working hard to save lives and protect against infectious diseases.
The report also showed measles vaccination improved, with 84% of children getting the first dose and 76% the second dose, a small rise from last year.About 2 million more children were vaccinated in 2024, but the coverage is still below the 95% needed to stop outbreaks.
This means over 30 million children are still not well protected against measles, leading to more large outbreaks. In 2024, 60 countries had big measles outbreaks, nearly double the number in 2022.
Even though people still want vaccines and protection is growing, funding shortages, instability, and vaccine misinformation threaten progress.
The WHO and UNICEF urged governments and partners to fund Gavi’s next plan (2026–2030) to protect many children in poorer countries and keep the world safe.
They also want stronger vaccination programs in conflict areas to reach more zero-dose children and stop deadly outbreaks.
They called for local solutions, more government investment, fighting misinformation, and better data and disease tracking to improve vaccination efforts.
