Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics - 2020-21

Schedule for 6-in-1  (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB)

•  In 2020-21, 92.0% of children were reported to have completed their primary course of 3 doses at 12 months.
• This is a decrease from 2019-20, when coverage was 92.6%.

_{4. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hexavalent-combination-vaccine-programme-guidance}

DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB

Regional coverage at 12 months

• 36 LAs (out of 148) have coverage levels of 95% and above.
• 38 LAs reported coverage of less than 90%. 24 of these LAs were in London.

DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB

National coverage at 24 months

National coverage at 5 years 

• In 2020-21, coverage for the 5-in-1 vaccine at 5 years was 95.2%, meeting the national target. This represents no change from the coverage reported in 2019-20.
• Coverage for children aged 5 years has met or exceeded the 95% target since 2011-12.

This page presents coverage for a single cohort of children, to show the changes in coverage as they age.

A ‘cohort’ refers to a group of children all born in the same year.         

Coverage = number vaccinated / eligible population.

National and regional coverage

Children should receive their DTaP/IPV pre-school booster from between 3 years and 4 months or soon thereafter. (This vaccine is given to children who have received a 3 dose course of the 5-in-1 vaccination).

National coverage at 5 years

• In 2020-21, coverage was 85.3%. This represents a decrease from 2019-20, when coverage was 85.4%
• Coverage was highest in 2012-13, at 88.9%.

MMR1 coverage at 24 months

• In 2020-21, 8 of 9 regions reached 90% coverage. 1 region, the North East, exceeded the national target of 95%.
• Coverage in England remained below the 95% target in 2020-21.

National MMR1 coverage at 5 years

• In 2020-21, coverage was 94.3%, this represents a decrease from 2019-20, when coverage was 94.5%.
• The 95% target was reached for the first and only time in 2016-17

Regional coverage at 24 months (booster)

• In 2020-21, 8 of 9 regions reached 90% coverage. 1 region (North East) exceeded the national target of 95%.
• Coverage in England was below the 95% target in 2020-21, 2019-20 and 2018-19.

Regional coverage at 24 months

• In 2020-21, 7 out of 9 regions reached 90% coverage. 1 region (North East) reached the national target of 95%.
• Coverage in England was also below the 95% target in both 2019-20 and 2020-21, at 90.5% and 90.2% respectively.

Vaccine summary:

• In 2020-21, coverage was 89.0%, this represents an increase of 0.3% from 2019-20, when coverage was 88.7%
• 6 of 9 regions reached 90% coverage.
• No regions achieved 95% coverage.

The table below displays the annual 2020-21 coverage values for the 4 UK countries. UK time series data (from 2009-10 to 2020-21) can be accessed in the interactive dashboard. 
Quarterly UK and country level vaccine coverage statistics are published in the quarterly COVER Health Protection Report by PHE⁵.   

Source: COVER – PHE, NHS Digital. See Data Tables 5a, 5b and 5c.

Values highlighted in bold represent those at or above the 95% target. (If a number rounds up to 95.0%, but the true figure is below 95.0%, the number is not in bold)

Links to vaccine statistics publications for Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales can be found in the Quality Statement (Coherence and Comparability section).

^{5. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/cover-of-vaccination-evaluated-rapidly-cover-programme-2019-to-2020-quarterly-data}

^{6. Data for PCV at 12 months is not available in 2020-21. This is due to the change in the vaccine schedule and how the vaccine is recorded – see appendix M for details}

In addition to the routine vaccines listed in this report, there are 2 selective neonatal vaccination programmes.

_{*  ‘At Risk’ infants: born to mothers who are chronically infected with Hepatitis B  (HBV) or to mothers who have had acute hepatitis B during pregnancy. Full details here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hexavalent-combination-vaccine-programme-guidance}

_{** Data for BCG collected through COVER were included for the first time in 2016-17}

_{*** At risk infants:}

 _{1. All infants (aged 0 to 12 months) with a parent or grandparent who was born in a country where the annual incidence of Tuberculosis (TB) is 40/100,000 or greater.
 2. All infants (aged 0 to 12 months) living in areas of the UK where the annual incidence of TB is 40/100,000 or greater}

Due to known data quality issues there are no regional or national data published for BCG or Hepatitis B within the data tables and both are designated as official statistics, rather than National Statistics.

Despite the data quality issues, it remains important to make the data available for the following reasons;

• they are acknowledged as the best that they can be given the issues involved
• to maintain public awareness
• justification of respondent/collection burden.
• identification of trends at local level within an active programme so that action can be taken to improve uptake where needed

BCG data can be found in Table 11a of the accompanying data tables. Coverage and eligible population data are only published for LAs running a universal vaccination programme.

HepB data can be found in Tables 11b and 11c for children aged 12 months and 24 months old respectively.

More information on BCG can be found in the Tuberculosis report published by PHE  

Appendix E of the accompanying Appendices document has more information.

Influenza vaccine

• During the 2020-21 winter season (1 September 2020 to 31 March 2021), all GP practices in England were asked to offer the influenza (seasonal flu) vaccine to all registered children aged 2 and 3 years.
• School age children aged 4 to 11 years are also vaccinated, but this data is not presented in this report⁶.
• Age is defined as age on 31 August 2020
• Data is collected for the period 1 September 2020 to 28 February 2021.
• Regional data for 2 and 3 year olds is presented on the next page.
• For further information, see the PHE report, which contains additional information, such as a coverage broken-down by children ‘in a clinical risk group’ and ‘not in a clinical risk group’
• Information on recommended components of vaccine

_{6. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/seasonal-flu-vaccine-uptake-in-children-of-school-age-monthly-data-2020-to-2021}

During the 2020-21 winter season (1 September 2020 to 31 March 2021), all GP practices in England were asked to offer the influenza (seasonal flu) vaccine to all registered children aged 2 or 3 years. Coverage data shown was collected for the period 1 September to 28 February.

Percentage of children vaccinated at 2 and 3 years of age

• In 2020-21, influenza vaccination coverage was 56.7% for the combined 2 and 3 years age group.
• This is an increase of 12.9 percentage points from 2019-20, when coverage for the combined 2 and 3 year age group was 43.8%

Note: Data is final end of season and represents 97.2% of all GP practices in England responding to the February 2021 Child GP Flu Survey (green) compared with 99.3% of practices in the same survey month in 2019-20. For further info. see Appendix B
Read the PHE report.