Childhood immunization continues to recover across Europe and Central Asia, but gaps remain – UNICEF

GENEVA, 15 July 2026 - Childhood immunization coverage across Europe and Central Asia continued its recovery towards pre-pandemic levels in 2025, according to the latest WHO/UNICEF Estimates of National Immunization Coverage (WUENIC) released today. Progress, however, remains uneven across countries.

Coverage with the third dose of diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine (DTP3), a key indicator of the strength of routine immunization programmes, increased from 86 per cent to 87 per cent across Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2025, but the coverage remains below the pre-pandemic baseline of 92 per cent in 2019.

Meanwhile, across the UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Region, an estimated 368,000 children remain zero-dose, meaning they have not received a single routine vaccine (using first dose of DTP vaccine as a tracer). These children are often the hardest to reach with essential health services.

These regional trends echo a larger global picture. Worldwide, DTP1 coverage reached 90 per cent and DTP3 reached 85 per cent in 2025. While both indicators rose by one percentage point from the previous year, global coverage remains one point below 2019 levels – leaving 13.5 million children without vaccination, and a further 6.2 million with only partial protection.

Averages for global and regional coverage conceal major gaps between countries. Uzbekistan, for example, recorded one of the largest reductions in zero-dose children globally, reducing the number by 74,000 in 2025. Several countries, including Armenia and Ukraine, recorded increases of more than 2 percentage points in DTP3 coverage. At the same time, DTP3 coverage declined in a number of countries, with the largest decreases observed in Kyrgyzstan, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Moldova.

Coverage with the first dose of measles-containing vaccine (MCV1) remained static at 88 per cent across Europe and Central Asia in 2025, as gains in some countries were offset by others. For example, following one of the region's largest improvements in 2024, Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded a 23-percentage point decline in MCV1 coverage in 2025, highlighting the need to sustain progress over time.

While the estimates show ongoing efforts by countries to expand protection against human papillomavirus (HPV)-related cancers, they also show that HPV vaccination remains below target across the region. Coverage of the final HPV dose was static at 24 per cent among girls in 2025 – falling well short of the 90 per cent goal and leaving 1.5 million girls unvaccinated. Three countries – Azerbaijan, Türkiye and Ukraine – did not include HPV vaccine in their national routine immunization schedule in 2025, with Ukraine introducing HPV from January 2026.

“The real measure of progress is not regional averages. It is whether every family can access and trust the vaccination services they need. Today's estimates remind us that too many children are still being missed. Closing those gaps will require stronger health systems, trusted health workers and sustained investment,” said Octavian Bivol, UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia.

As countries strive to regain or exceed their pre-pandemic immunization levels, sustained efforts are needed to reach children who are missing out on vaccination and address persistent barriers to uptake. These include inequitable access, the quality and convenience of vaccination services and programmatic challenges.

UNICEF is working with governments across the region to strengthen health systems and routine immunization programmes, improve the use of data to identify children who are being missed, and support community engagement to increase trust in immunization and vaccine uptake.