{"id":7432,"date":"2026-04-21T09:07:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/?p=7432"},"modified":"2026-04-17T09:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T23:51:09","slug":"falling-vax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hepatitissa.asn.au\/communitynews\/2026\/04\/falling-vax\/","title":{"rendered":"Child vaccination rates falling fast, with some regions barely reaching\u00a080 per cent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Peter Breadon<\/a>, Grattan Institute<\/a><\/em> and Mia Jessurun<\/a>, Grattan Institute<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Child vaccination has been one of Australia\u2019s biggest success stories<\/a>. Before the COVID pandemic, we hit the national target of 95 per cent of one-year-olds fully vaccinated. Our child vaccination rates were among the best in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vaccination protects children from potentially severe illnesses such as measles, mumps and whooping cough. These diseases can cause severe pain, put children in hospital, risk their lives and leave them with ongoing health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Australia\u2019s vaccine success is quickly slipping away<\/a>. After the pandemic, the share of one-year-olds who are fully vaccinated kept falling. In some areas, it\u2019s now barely 80 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The risks are real. Whooping cough notifications are the highest<\/a> since records began, 35 years ago. In the past week, there have been measles exposure sites in Sydney and regional New South Wales, including hospitals and a high-school hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: LSOphoto<\/a>\/ iStock<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We don\u2019t want to end up like other countries. In America, dozens of people have been hospitalised<\/a> with measles already this year, and Canada has lost<\/a> its measles elimination status. An outbreak<\/a> in London is putting children in hospital, and may force unvaccinated children to stay home from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why aim high?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One-year-old fully immunised babies have received vaccinations for diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, hepatitis B, Haemophilus influenzae<\/em> type b (Hib) and pneumococcal disease.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High vaccination coverage is necessary to achieve herd immunity: the point where diseases find it hard to spread to children who aren\u2019t vaccinated. Some children aren\u2019t vaccinated because they are too young. Others can\u2019t be vaccinated because they have weakened immune systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When 95 per cent of children are vaccinated, it\u2019s difficult for even highly infectious diseases such as measles to spread in the community, protecting both the vaccinated and unvaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sliding backwards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Grattan Institute analysis<\/a> shows that over the past five years, Australia has recorded an unprecedented slide in the proportion of one-year-olds who are fully vaccinated. In the year to 30 September 2025, 92 per cent of one-year-olds were fully vaccinated, compared with 95 per cent in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many parts of Australia are now well below national vaccination targets. Five years ago, 56 per cent of regions and suburbs were achieving the national target for one-year old vaccination. Today it is just 18 per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Notes: SA3s are geographical areas typically covering a population of between 30,000 and 130,000 people. Data are for the four quarters to 30 September, rather than the calendar year. Due to boundary changes, some areas (shown in grey) cannot be directly compared between time periods. Grattan Institute analysis of Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing (2026)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Some areas are falling further behind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The declines have been biggest where children were already more vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 10% of areas with the highest vaccination for one-year olds, uptake slid by just 1.3 percentage points since 2020 \u2013 from an average of 98 per cent in 2020 to 97 per cent in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in the areas with the lowest vaccination, the fall was more than four times greater, at 5.7 percentage points \u2013 from an average of 90 per cent in 2020 to 84 per cent in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chart<\/a>
Notes: SA3s are geographical areas typically covering a population of between 30,000 and 130,000 people. Data are for the four quarters to 30 September in each year, rather than the calendar year. Grattan Institute analysis of Department of Health, Disability, and Ageing (2026)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Almost no area has recorded a vaccination increase. And every state has areas with sharp falls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the biggest surges in the share of one-year olds who are fully vaccinated are in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n