Vaccine Hesitancy Statistics in US 2026 | Key Facts

What is Vaccine Hesitancy?

Vaccine hesitancy is defined by the World Health Organization as the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite the availability of vaccines. It is a complex and deeply context-dependent phenomenon — shaped not merely by a lack of information, but by a mix of trust, complacency, and convenience barriers that vary widely across communities, geographies, and demographics. In the United States, vaccine hesitancy has moved from the fringes of public health discourse into a central, urgent crisis. It is no longer an abstract concern debated in academic circles; it is a measurable, data-driven pattern that public health surveillance systems — including the CDC’s National Immunization Survey (NIS), SchoolVaxView, and RespVaxView — are tracking with increasing alarm. The consequences are already playing out in real time: measles, once declared eliminated in the US in 2000, has roared back, driven directly by pockets of unvaccinated populations that hesitancy has created.

Understanding vaccine hesitancy in 2026 requires looking at the full picture — from parental decisions at the school enrollment desk to adult choices about flu and COVID-19 shots, from the policy environment in Idaho to the clinical encounters in federally qualified health centers. What distinguishes today’s vaccine hesitancy crisis from earlier episodes is its scale, its political entanglement, and the institutional legitimization it has received through changes at the federal level. Between declining kindergarten vaccination rates, record-high exemption numbers, a resurgent measles epidemic, and historically low adult uptake of respiratory vaccines, the US is navigating one of the most consequential public health inflection points of the 21st century. The statistics that follow are sourced exclusively from US government surveillance systems and verified federal publications.

Key Facts: Vaccine Hesitancy in the US 2026

Before diving into the full data sections, here is a snapshot of the most striking vaccine hesitancy facts 2026 — figures that establish just how far the situation has shifted in recent years.

Data Sources: CDC SchoolVaxView — Vaccination Coverage and Exemptions Among Kindergartners, 2024–2025 School Year; CDC RespVaxView — National Immunization Survey, January 2026; CDC Measles Cases and Outbreaks, updated May 8, 2026

The numbers in this table carry weight far beyond what percentages typically suggest. A 3.5 percentage-point decline in MMR coverage over just six school years — from 96.0% in 2018–19 to 92.5% in 2024–25 — translates directly into roughly 286,000 kindergartners entering school without documentation of completing their MMR vaccine series, according to CDC SchoolVaxView data. These are not children in developing nations without access to vaccines — these are children in American classrooms, many of them in states where exemption laws have been systematically loosened. The data is unambiguous: 138,000 kindergartners are formally exempt from one or more required vaccines as of the 2024–25 school year, and the 3.6% national exemption rate is the highest ever recorded in the US school vaccination surveillance system.

The adult vaccination data is equally sobering. With just 16.1% of US adults receiving the 2025–26 COVID-19 vaccine as of January 2026, and just 43.9% vaccinated against flu, the barriers — rooted in hesitancy, distrust, and institutional messaging gaps — are producing population-level gaps in immunity that cannot be bridged by the vaccinated minority alone. Even the 30.8% COVID-19 vaccine uptake among adults 65 and older — a group at highest risk of severe disease outcomes — signals how deeply hesitancy has penetrated even medically vulnerable demographics.

Kindergarten Vaccination Coverage Trends in the US 2026

MMR Vaccination Coverage Among US Kindergartners — Trend 2018–2025
(CDC SchoolVaxView, 2024–2025 School Year)

96.0% |████████████████████████████████████████| 2018–19
95.2% |███████████████████████████████████████▌| 2019–20
94.9% |███████████████████████████████████████▏| 2020–21
94.7% |███████████████████████████████████████ | 2021–22
93.1% |██████████████████████████████████████▏ | 2022–23
92.7% |█████████████████████████████████████▊  | 2023–24
92.5% |█████████████████████████████████████▌  | 2024–25
       ─────────────────────────────────────────
       0%           50%          95% ←Herd Immunity Threshold

Data Source: CDC SchoolVaxView — Vaccination Coverage and Exemptions Among Kindergartners, 2024–2025 School Year (published July 31, 2025)

The multi-year trend in kindergarten vaccination coverage 2026 is one of the most clearly documented warning signs in US public health. Every single major vaccine — MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella — has experienced consecutive declines across the six school years from 2018–19 to 2024–25, according to CDC SchoolVaxView. The MMR coverage drop from 96.0% to 92.5% represents a loss of 3.5 percentage points — enough to push the national average from above the herd immunity threshold to well below it. Coverage declined in more than half of all reporting states for MMR, DTaP, polio, and varicella vaccines, compared with the prior year, confirming that this is a nationwide trend rather than a regional anomaly. DTaP coverage at 92.1% is the lowest of any reported vaccine across this period, raising additional concern about the resurgence of pertussis (whooping cough) in communities where clusters of unvaccinated children exist.

What makes these numbers particularly alarming is the compounding nature of the risk. A national coverage rate of 92.5% appears close to 95%, but it conceals extreme geographic variation. The CDC’s own SchoolVaxView state-level data shows that only 10 states in the 2024–25 school year reported MMR coverage at or above 95%. The other 40+ states are below herd immunity threshold for measles — a highly contagious disease that requires 95% coverage to prevent community transmission. With at least 33 states below the herd immunity threshold as of 2024–25, up from 28 states in 2018–19, the structural risk of sustained outbreaks is no longer theoretical. 1,842 confirmed measles cases through May 7, 2026 confirm that the risk has fully materialized.

Vaccine Exemption Rates by State in the US 2026

Non-Medical Vaccine Exemption Rates — Selected States, 2024–2025
(CDC SchoolVaxView | All % are non-medical exemption rates)

Idaho       |███████████████  15.0%
Alaska      |████████████     ~8.5%
Montana     |████████         ~7.0%
Oregon      |██████           ~5.5%
Colorado    |█████            ~5.0%
Arizona     |████             ~4.5%
National    |███              3.4%
Virginia    |█                ~1.2%
Maryland    |▌                ~0.6%
Connecticut |▏                0.1%
             ──────────────────────
             0%      5%      10%     15%

Data Source: CDC SchoolVaxView — Vaccination Coverage and Exemptions Among Kindergartners, 2024–2025 School Year; International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, August 2025

The geographic disparity in vaccine exemption rates 2026 represents one of the most consequential public health divides in the United States today. At one extreme, Idaho’s non-medical exemption rate of approximately 15% combined with an MMR coverage floor of 78.5% makes it the most measles-vulnerable state in the nation by a significant margin. A Frontiers in Public Health analysis published in April 2026 found that each 1% increase in exemption prevalence is associated with an approximately 1.08 percentage-point decrease in MMR vaccination coverage — a relationship that accounts for roughly two-thirds of all state-level variation in coverage. States with the most permissive exemption laws, including Idaho, Alaska, and Montana, consistently report coverage below the 95% herd immunity threshold, while states with restrictive medical-only exemption policies, such as Connecticut (0.1% non-medical exemption rate) and Virginia, maintain coverage near or above the protective level. The 17 states with exemption rates exceeding 5% in 2024–25 — up from just 14 states in the prior year — represent a growing bloc of jurisdictions where vaccine hesitancy has been structurally encoded into state law.

The policy implications of this data have never been clearer. A January 2026 JAMA Pediatrics study found that states that had previously repealed non-medical exemption policies maintained higher vaccination rates during the period of heightened hesitancy — while states that loosened their exemption laws saw measurable coverage declines. The contrast between Connecticut’s 98.2% MMR coverage and Idaho’s 78.5% is not accidental or random: it is a direct, quantifiable consequence of policy choices that either reinforce or undermine childhood immunization as a community norm. For the roughly 286,000 kindergartners nationwide who entered school without complete MMR documentation in 2024–25, the gap between Connecticut and Idaho is the difference between a protected and an unprotected childhood.

Measles Outbreak Statistics and Vaccine Hesitancy in the US 2026

US Measles Cases by Year — Impact of Vaccine Hesitancy on Disease Resurgence
(CDC Measles Cases and Outbreaks | *2026 figure as of May 7, 2026)

2019 |███████████████████████████████  1,274 cases
2020 |█                                  13 cases
2021 |███                                49 cases
2022 |██                                 27 cases
2023 |████                               59 cases
2024 |████████████████                  285 cases
2025 |████████████████████████████████████████████████ 2,288 cases
2026*|████████████████████████████████████             1,842 cases (Jan–May 7)
      ────────────────────────────────────────────────
      0         500      1,000     1,500     2,000    2,500

Data Source: CDC Measles Cases and Outbreaks — cdc.gov/measles/data-research, updated May 8, 2026

The US measles outbreak statistics 2026 represent the clearest and most direct consequence of sustained vaccine hesitancy in the American population. The 2,288 confirmed measles cases in 2025 were the most reported in any single year since 1991 — surpassing the near-elimination crisis of 2019 (1,274 cases) by a staggering margin. The 1,842 cases already confirmed in 2026 by May 7 are tracking ahead of 2025 at the same point in the year, meaning the final 2026 total could well exceed 2025’s record. The most damning statistic in this entire dataset is also the most straightforward: approximately 92% of all confirmed 2026 measles cases involved individuals who were either unvaccinated or had unknown vaccination status. The two-dose MMR vaccine, which is 97% effective at preventing measles, is simply not reaching enough Americans to interrupt transmission chains.

The demographic concentration of these cases exposes the human cost of hesitancy-driven under-vaccination in visceral terms. 73% of 2026 measles cases involve children and young adults aged 19 years and under — a population that had no say in whether they were vaccinated and is now bearing the burden of decisions made by adults around them. The 93% outbreak-association rate of 2026 cases confirms that this is not random sporadic transmission but structured, community-based spread enabled by pockets of unvaccinated individuals that vaccine hesitancy has created and sustained. With 25 new outbreaks reported in 2026 alone — including the massive South Carolina outbreak that exceeded 973 cases before being declared over in late April 2026 — the US is experiencing a level of domestic measles transmission that directly threatens its elimination status, which it has held since 2000.

Adult Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake Rates in the US 2026

Adult Vaccination Uptake — 2025–26 Respiratory Vaccine Season
(CDC RespVaxView, National Immunization Survey, January 2026)

COVID-19 (All Adults 18+)        |████             16.1%
COVID-19 (Adults 65+)            |████████         30.8%
COVID-19 (High-Risk 18–64)       |█████            20.5%
Flu (All Adults 18+)             |████████████████ 43.9%
RSV (Adults 75+)                 |███████████████  40.9%
RSV (High-Risk Adults 50–74)     |████████████     30.9%
                                  ─────────────────────────
                                  0%    20%    40%    60%   80%

Data Source: CDC RespVaxView — Vaccination Uptake, Intent, and Confidence Dashboard, National Immunization Survey–Fall Respiratory Virus Module, updated February 20, 2026

The adult vaccine hesitancy statistics 2026 reveal a population increasingly disengaged from the routine immunization practices that public health systems depend on. The 16.1% COVID-19 vaccine uptake among all US adults 18 and older for the 2025–26 season is a figure that would have seemed unimaginable just three years ago, given the massive mobilization around COVID-19 vaccination in 2021. Even among adults 65 and older — the age group most vulnerable to severe COVID-19 outcomes, including hospitalization and death — just 30.8% had received the updated 2025–26 vaccine as of January 2026. The CDC’s data makes it plain that confidence drives uptake: adults who considered the COVID-19 vaccine safe were vaccinated at a rate of 31.1%, compared to just 3.0% among those who did not; adults who considered it important for self-protection were vaccinated at 26.2%, versus just 1.2% among those who didn’t. These stark ratios confirm that hesitancy — not access — is the dominant barrier.

Flu vaccination data tells a similar story. The 43.9% flu vaccine coverage among US adults means that more than half of the adult population remains unvaccinated against influenza each season. The CDC’s data shows that adults who considered the flu vaccine safe were vaccinated at 62.0% compared to 20.5% for those who did not — a 3:1 ratio that underscores how powerfully vaccine confidence correlates with actual uptake. The 43.7% provider recommendation rate for flu vaccine — and the even lower 19.7% rate for COVID-19 vaccine — highlights that even clinical touchpoints are failing to consistently translate into vaccination. With RSV vaccine coverage at just 40.9% among adults 75 and older and only 30.9% among high-risk adults aged 50–74, the full scope of adult vaccine hesitancy in the US 2026 extends well beyond COVID-19 and touches every vaccine-preventable disease that disproportionately kills and hospitalizes older Americans.

Childhood Vaccination Disparities and Vaccine Hesitancy in the US 2026

Combined 7-Vaccine Series Coverage at Age 24 Months — US Children by Race/Ethnicity
(CDC MMWR, National Immunization Survey-Child, 2021–2023 data, published September 2024)

Non-Hispanic White       |█████████████████████████████████  ~71–73%
Non-Hispanic Asian       |█████████████████████████████████  ~72–74%
Hispanic/Latino          |████████████████████████████████   ~67–69%
Non-Hispanic Black       |███████████████████████████████    ~65–67%
Am. Indian / Alaska Nat. |█████████████████████████          ~55–58%
                          ─────────────────────────────────────
                          0%       25%       50%       75%    100%

Data Source: CDC MMWR — Decline in Vaccination Coverage by Age 24 Months and Vaccination Inequities Among Children Born in 2020 and 2021, National Immunization Survey-Child, published September 26, 2024

Childhood vaccination disparities in the US 2026 reflect a layered intersection of race, income, insurance status, and geography that has been documented across successive CDC National Immunization Survey-Child analyses. According to the CDC’s MMWR report on children born in 2020–2021, coverage with the combined seven-vaccine series — the most comprehensive measure of full childhood immunization — was lower among Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/Alaska Native children than among non-Hispanic White children. For American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children, combined series coverage was estimated at approximately 57–58%, compared to 72–73% for non-Hispanic White children — a gap exceeding 15 percentage points that represents not just a statistical disparity but a structural failure to reach entire communities with life-saving vaccines. The uninsured population shows the starkest coverage deficits, with combined series coverage as low as ~48%, nearly 25 percentage points below the privately insured population.

The coverage disparities documented here are not simply the result of individual vaccine hesitancy decisions — they reflect compounding barriers involving financial access, provider availability, health literacy, and historical distrust of medical institutions, which the CDC’s own research acknowledges. Children in rural areas and families living below the federal poverty level consistently show lower coverage across all vaccine types, with rural children averaging 1–2 percentage points below urban peers on most measures and poverty-level children showing even wider gaps, particularly for the influenza vaccine series, where the disparity between privately insured and uninsured children can exceed 28 percentage points. The decline in vaccination coverage observed among children born in 2020–2021 — 1.3 to 7.8 percentage points lower than among the 2018–2019 birth cohort across nearly all vaccine measures — signals that pandemic-era disruptions to primary care created a structural backslide that these same vulnerable populations have been least equipped to recover from.

Vaccine Hesitancy Drivers and Barriers in the US 2026

Top Reasons for Vaccine Hesitancy Among US Adults — Combined Estimates
(CDC RANDS Survey; CDC NIS; Annenberg Public Policy Center Survey 2025)

Fear of side effects            |████████████████████████████████████████  ~49–55%
Distrust of vaccines            |███████████████████████████████████████   ~48–50%
Don't think vaccine is needed   |████████████████████████████             ~35–38%
Distrust of government          |███████████████████████████              ~34–36%
Waiting to see if vaccine is safe|█████████████████████████               ~31–33%
Vaccine not important to me     |████████████████████████                 ~28–30%
Low concern about disease       |████████████████████                     ~24–27%
                                  ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
                                  0%        20%        40%        60%

Data Source: CDC Research and Development Survey (RANDS); CDC RespVaxView NIS–Fall Respiratory Virus Module, January 2026; Frontiers in Public Health Vol. 14, 2026

The drivers of vaccine hesitancy in the US 2026 form a picture that defies any single-cause explanation. At the top of the list sit two forces that have been consistent across CDC survey data for several years: fear of side effects, cited by approximately 49–55% of hesitant adults, and general distrust of vaccines, cited by a near-equal proportion. These two factors are deeply intertwined — the perception that vaccine side effects are under-reported, under-acknowledged, or actively concealed feeds directly into distrust of both the products and the institutions promoting them. The CDC’s RANDS national survey documented that belief in the social benefit of COVID-19 vaccination dropped sharply from 47.5% to 25.1% between 2021 and 2022 — a collapse in collective vaccination rationale that has not reversed in subsequent years and has instead spread into hesitancy toward flu, RSV, and routine childhood vaccines.

The role of healthcare provider recommendation as a hesitancy driver is understated but critical. The CDC’s RespVaxView data for January 2026 shows that just 19.7% of adults reported that their provider recommended COVID-19 vaccination this season — meaning that for more than 80% of US adults, the most trusted and effective channel for vaccine promotion simply was not activated during a critical window. For flu vaccination, the recommendation rate was 43.7% — better, but still leaving over half of adult patients without a direct clinical prompt. Research consistently shows that a physician recommendation remains the single most effective intervention for increasing vaccination uptake, making the low recommendation rates not just a symptom of the hesitancy crisis but a structural amplifier of it. Addressing vaccine hesitancy in 2026 requires simultaneously rebuilding institutional trust, empowering clinical advocates, and confronting the misinformation ecosystem that transforms concern into refusal.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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