13.5 Million Children Received Zero Vaccines in 2025 — WHO & UNICEF Sound Alarm

A landmark WHO-UNICEF report reveals that 13.5 million infants across the globe went through their entire first year of life without receiving a single vaccine in 2025 as conflict, poverty, and rising anti-vaccine misinformation continue to shatter global immunisation progress.

The World Is Still Failing Millions of Unvaccinated Children

Thirteen-and-a-half million children entered their first birthday with zero vaccine protection in 2025 that is the sobering verdict of the latest annual immunisation report released jointly by the World Health Organization and UNICEF. While the number fell by nearly 750,000 compared to 2024, health experts warn this modest dip masks a far more dangerous trend: millions of children who start their vaccine schedule simply never finish it.

The report formally known as the WHO-UNICEF Estimates of National Immunisation Coverage, or WUENIC draws on data from 185 countries. It paints a picture of a world that is inching forward, but nowhere near fast enough.

Global Coverage Edges Up But Falls Short of Pre-Pandemic Levels

In 2025, roughly 116 million infants or 90% of children globally received at least one dose of the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or DTP, vaccine. About 110 million representing 85% completed the full three-dose DTP series. Both figures climbed by one percentage point over the previous year. Yet global immunisation coverage still trails behind 2019 levels by one full percentage point and has remained stubbornly flat within the same narrow range since 2009.

Millions Are Starting Vaccines But Never Completing Them

Beyond the 13.5 million zero-dose children lies a second crisis the dropout epidemic. An estimated 7.3 million infants received their first DTP shot in the early months of life, but never made it to the first measles vaccine, typically given between nine and twelve months. Health officials say misinformation is a key driver of this dropout trend.

“We think that this is clearly related in some settings to false information, misinformation that is provided around measles vaccination,” warned Dr Kate O’Brien, WHO’s Director of Vaccines calling the pattern a matter of “very significant concern.”

Measles Outbreaks Explode Across 57 Countries

The consequences of incomplete vaccination are already visible. Measles coverage in 2025 reached only 84% for the first dose and 77% for the second far below the 95% threshold that experts say is needed to prevent outbreaks of this highly contagious disease. The result: 57 countries reported large or disruptive measles outbreaks in 2025 alone. Beyond measles, the world also recorded unprecedented numbers of diphtheria and cholera outbreaks during the year.

Conflict Zones Carry the Heaviest Burden

More than half of all zero-dose children now live inside fragile, conflict-affected nations where broken health systems, insecurity, and political instability have torn apart routine immunisation programmes. Syria offers one of the starkest examples DTP coverage there fell by six percentage points in a single year, while measles vaccination dropped by twelve points.

Sudan, despite its own brutal ongoing conflict, delivered one of the world’s most dramatic turnarounds boosting DTP coverage by 35 percentage points and measles vaccination by 22 points after aggressively expanding access to health services.

“Governments and health workers have helped global vaccination rates bounce back after dropping significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “But millions of vulnerable children are still being left unprotected due to conflict, displacement, and poverty. We must reach every child, and we must rebuild trust where it is fraying. No child should suffer from a disease that a simple vaccine can prevent.”

Rich Countries Are Not Immune Either

The crisis is not confined to low-income or conflict-hit nations. Even in middle- and high-income countries, vaccine coverage is quietly eroding. South Africa saw its DTP1 coverage plunge by 20 percentage points since 2019 and it kept falling in 2025. Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had posted its strongest-ever measles vaccine gains in 2024, saw coverage crash by 23 points in just a single year. Shifting political priorities, structural weaknesses in health systems, and growing public hesitancy are driving these reversals.

UNICEF’s immunisation chief Ephrem Lemango also sounded the alarm over shrinking data infrastructure. Only 18 national immunisation surveys were completed and submitted for 2025 compared to 50 the previous year leaving dangerous blind spots in outbreak detection.

“Our ability to have a strong surveillance of outbreaks has been considerably impacted,” Lemango told reporters.

Funding Cuts Threaten to Erase Future Progress

The Gavi Vaccine Alliance which backstops immunisation programmes across 57 low-income nations reported its best-ever coverage results in 2025. However, it cautioned that dwindling international funding could wipe out those hard-won gains with devastating speed.

“We believe that 600,000 lives that could have been saved will be impacted,” said Thabani Maphosa, Gavi’s chief country delivery officer.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the moral stakes crystal clear: “Every child, whether born into wealth or poverty, peace or conflict, deserves the lifegiving protection that vaccines provide. Immunization is one of the most cost-effective, most equitable, and most reliable interventions for protecting children’s health and well-being. Our greatest security begins with ensuring that everyone, wherever they may live, is protected from deadly diseases that vaccines have the power to prevent.”

The Road Ahead: What Must Change

WHO and UNICEF called on governments and global partners to close the Gavi funding gap, strengthen immunisation in conflict zones, counter vaccine misinformation with evidence-based outreach, and invest heavily in disease surveillance systems. Over the last 25 years, the annual count of zero-dose children has fallen by 40% proof that sustained effort works. The challenge now is whether the world can summon the same political will and the funds to match it before the immunity gaps of today become the outbreaks of tomorrow.