Childhood immunisation statistics Scotland
Quarter ending 30 June 2026

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the latest quarterly update of childhood immunisation uptake rates in Scotland. Immunisation programmes for children aim to protect individual children from many serious infectious diseases and prevent the spread of disease in the wider population. Information is shown for NHS Boards and local authorities covering children at 12 months, 24 months, 5 years and 6 years of age. The data are also broken down by ethnicity and by measures of where children live, including Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) and urban rural classification. Data from this publication are available through the Vaccination Surveillance Dashboard, which provides interactive visualisations and downloadable content.

Guidance on why and when to immunise in Scotland is available via NHS inform, including details of the vaccines offered and the diseases they protect against.

Main points

• Although overall vaccine uptake in Scotland remains high, most childhood immunisation measures have shown a general downward trend over time. Compared with the previous quarter, uptake generally decreased among children aged 12 and 24 months, while uptake at 5 years remained broadly stable and increased slightly at 6 years.
• In the most recent quarter, uptake among children aged 12 months was: 93.9% for MenB, 92.9% for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), 92.3% for 6-in-1 and 91.1% for rotavirus.

A line chart showing percentage uptake of 6-in-1, MenB, PCV and Rotavirus immunisations separately by 12 months of age and by quarter, from quarter ending June 2017 to quarter ending June 2026. Details are provided in the accompanying text.

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Immunisation uptake rates by 12 months of age*, by quarter

*Children turning 12 months of age in the relevant quarter e.g. for Apr-Jun 2026 this would be children born during Apr-Jun 2025.

• Most children received their booster vaccines by 24 months of age, with uptake of 91.1% for PCV, 90.7% for MenB and 87.4% for Hib/MenC. The lower Hib/MenC uptake reflects this being the last cohort eligible to receive the vaccine under the previous schedule.
• 90.9% of children had a first dose of a measles, mumps and rubella (MMR)-containing vaccine by 24 months of age; uptake was 95.5% among children aged 5 years.
• 89.6% had received a second dose of an MMR-containing vaccine by age 5 years; uptake was 90.7% among those aged 6 years.
• The 4-in-1 vaccine is offered at 3 years 4 months and provides a booster dose of protection against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis and polio. Uptake of the 4-in-1 booster was 89.7% among children aged 5 years and 91.4% among children aged 6 years.
• Uptake was lower for children living in the most deprived areas than for those in the least deprived areas. At 12 months, the differences between the most and least deprived quintiles were 6.4 percentage points for 6-in-1, 5.7 percentage points for rotavirus, 5.6 percentage points for PCV and 4.2 percentage points for MenB. At 5 years, the differences were 11.1 percentage points for the second dose of MMR and 11.0 percentage points for the 4-in-1 booster. The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD) is Scotland’s standard measure of area-based relative deprivation.
• Uptake varied by ethnicity and urban rural classification across all vaccines and age groups. Patterns were similar to those seen in previous quarters, although differences varied by vaccine and age measure. Ethnicity classifications use Scottish 2022 Census categories.

Background

As a public health measure, immunisations are very effective in reducing the burden of disease. The European Region of the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that on a national basis at least 95% of children are immunised against diseases preventable by immunisation and targeted for elimination or control. These include diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), measles, mumps and rubella.

Rotavirus vaccine should be given within strict age limits, with the first dose before 15 weeks and second dose before 24 weeks of age. These age limits mean that if a child is not immunised with the first dose early enough, due to missed appointments for example, then it may not be possible for them to complete the full 2 dose course before 24 weeks. This explains why uptake of the completed 2 dose course of rotavirus vaccine is slightly lower than completed courses of the other vaccines offered in the first year of life.

The routine childhood immunisation schedule was updated on 1 July 2025 and 1 January 2026.

The statistics should be interpreted with schedule changes in mind. For children turning 12 months in this report, PCV and MenB were offered at different ages than before. This is also the last reporting quarter for Hib/MenC. The other changes to the schedule (from 1 January 2026) do not yet impact the figures shown here because they apply to children who have not yet reached the ages covered by this report.

For details, see: Changes from 1 July 2025 and Changes from 1 January 2026.

Further information

The next release of this publication will be December 2026.