Childhood Vaccination Coverage Statistics, England, 2023-24

This publication reports childhood vaccination statistics for England in 2023-24, relating to the routine vaccinations offered to all children up to the age of 5 years, derived from the Cover of vaccination evaluated rapidly (COVER) programme.

The European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) currently recommends that on a national basis at least 95% of children are immunised against diseases preventable by immunisation and targeted for elimination or control (specifically, diphtheria, neonatal tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), Hepatitis B, measles, mumps and congenital rubella¹).

The routine childhood immunisation programme for the UK includes these immunisations recommended by WHO as well as a number of others as advised by the Joint Committee on Vaccination & Immunisation (JCVI) and defined by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)²

There is an expectation that UK coverage rates of all routine childhood immunisations evaluated up to 5 years of age achieve 95%.

Seasonal influenza vaccine coverage is also presented in this report, for children aged 2 and 3 years. The 95% target does not apply to influenza vaccinations. 

_{1. Source: http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/98398/wa540ga199heeng.pdf}

_{2. Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/immunisation-against-infectious-disease-the-green-book}

Report bulletin

• Presents a detailed summary of the 2023-24 data collection.
• Further information on the data presented is available in the additional resources outlined here.

Interactive dashboard

• The main report is accompanied by an interactive data dashboard. Data are presented in maps and charts. This allows comparison between areas as well as showing changes over time.
• The geographic breakdowns included in the dashboard are upper tier local authority, region and country.
• open the interactive dashboard

Data tables

• Contain all relevant statistics for 2023-24.
• Available in Excel or csv format.

Appendices

• Further detail on a number of topics including
• Publication context
• Coverage definitions
• Changes to the programme
• Data collection
• Specific vaccines
• Future collections
• Related publications

Quality statement:

• Methods for data collection

All resources are available from the publication page.

BCG vaccination coverage:

Bacillus Calmette–Guérin (BCG) is a selective vaccination. 

In 2022-23, BCG vaccination coverage was assessed at age 3 months. 2022-23 was  the first time data has been recorded for the 3 month cohort, it is badged as statistics in development.

In 2023-24, BCG vaccination data is also available for age 12 months.

Eligible populations and number vaccinated were recorded for each Local Authority in England. Therefore, it is possible to publish national and region coverage values for this vaccination.

In previous years, data collected at age 12 months only contained the number vaccinated, so national coverage had not previously been reported.

Disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, beginning in March 2020, is likely to have caused some of decreases in vaccine coverage seen in 2020-21 and 2021-22, compared to earlier years. In this report, the effect of COVID disruption most likely to be seen in the 5 year age group, where some children would have been scheduled to receive their routine childhood immunisations from March 2020 onwards.

Furthermore, some children who may have missed out on receiving routine immunisations at the scheduled time and otherwise would have caught up by their 5th birthday, may also have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic from late March 2020 onwards.

			Age at which Coverage is measured*
Disease (Vaccine)	Age	Notes	12m	24m		5yr
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b and hepatitis B (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB)** (6-in-1 or Hexavalent vaccine)	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course
	2nd dose: 12 weeks
	3rd dose: 16 weeks
Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio (DTaP/IPV)	3 years and 4 months or soon after	Booster: 3 years after completion of primary course
Pneumococcal disease (PCV)***	1st dose: 12 weeks	Primary course
	One year	Booster
Rotavirus	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course (has to be completed before 24 weeks of age)
	2nd dose: 12 weeks
Meningococcal group B (MenB) (from September 2015)	1st dose: 8 weeks	Primary course
	2nd dose: 16 weeks
	1 year	Booster
Haemophilus Influenzae type b and meningococcal group C (Hib/MenC)	1 year	MenC primary
		Hib booster
Measles/mumps/rubella (MMR)	1 year	First dose
	3 years and 4 months or soon after	Second dose
			2yrs		3yrs
Children’s flu vaccine (2023-24)	Aged 2 to 10 years on 31/08/2023	Annual vaccination

*   Coverage is assessed when children reach specific ages. The ages presented in this report are marked with a tick

_{** From autumn 2017, all babies born on or after 1 August 2017 are eligible for a hexavalent vaccine which includes hepatitis B (HepB) for their primary immunisations.}

_{*** Babies born from 1 January 2020 will be offered 1 dose of PCV at 12 weeks of age and a booster dose at 1 year(www.gov.uk/government/publications/pneumococcal-vaccination-infant-schedule-changes-from-january-2020-letter). Due to this change, PCV 12m data was not available for 2020-21.}

_{Prior to this, the primary course consisted of a 1st dose at 8 weeks, a 2nd dose at 16 weeks and a booster given at 12 months.}