2026-09-26 · infants born per year
One in ten infants miss basic vaccines
DTP3 coverage is a proxy for routine immunization systems worldwide.
DTP3 — three doses against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (whooping cough) — is the standard test of whether a health system reaches its newborns. In 2025, 16% of the world's infants missed it, leaving them exposed to diseases that can disable or kill. Roughly one in ten got no vaccine at all: 13.5 million children. Where a baby is born still largely decides whether that protection arrives.
1 cell = 140 thousand infants born per year (0.1% of annual births) · 1,000 cells
Context
At the core of the missed share are 13.5 million zero-dose children who missed out on any vaccination in 2025, plus another 6 million who are partially vaccinated. Of the nearly 20 million un- and under-vaccinated children, around 53% live in just ten countries — Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Yemen.
Measles, because of its high transmissibility, acts as an early warning system that quickly exposes immunity gaps. First-dose coverage reached 84% in 2025, yet nearly 21 million children missed that dose — up from 19 million in 2019.
WHO and UNICEF's latest estimates, released in July 2026, show coverage holding steady since 2024 but on a troubling trajectory toward the Immunization Agenda 2030 targets. HPV first-dose coverage among girls, at 33%, remains far below the 90% goal for 2030 despite a substantial rise from 17% in 2019.
WHO / UNICEF immunization coverage estimates.
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