Official Statistics

Quarterly vaccination coverage statistics for children aged up to 5 years in the UK (COVER programme): January to March 2025

Updated 26 June 2025

Health Protection Report

Volume 19 Number 6

Published 26 June 2025

This report of the Cover of Vaccination Evaluated Rapidly (COVER) programme presents quarterly coverage data for children in the UK who reached their first, second, or fifth birthday during the evaluation quarter (January to March 2025).

The full coverage data by country, region, and upper tier local authority (UTLA) is contained in the data file accompanying this report.

Main points

In comparison with the previous quarter:

• coverage in England measured in children aged 12 months increased by 0.1 percentage points for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine; decreased by 0.1 percentage points for the PCV1 vaccine; increased by 0.4 percentage points for the rotavirus vaccine; and increased by 0.1 percentage points for the MenB vaccine
• coverage in the UK measured in children aged 12 months remained stable for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine and the MenB vaccine, decreased by 0.1 percentage points for the PCV1 vaccine, and increased by 0.4 percentage points for the rotavirus vaccine
• coverage of the first dose of MMR measured at 24 months (in children who first became eligible between January and March 2024) increased by 0.1 percentage points in England and remained stable in the UK
• coverage of the first dose of MMR measured in children aged 5 years increased by 0.3 percentage points in England, largely reflecting vaccinations delivered in January to March 2021
• UK coverage for the pre-school booster (DTaP/IPV) increased by 0.9 percentage points and MMR2 increased by 0.5 percentage points, reflecting vaccinations that should have been delivered between May to July 2023
• both Scotland and Wales exceeded the 95% World Health Organization (WHO) target for coverage for both the ‘6-in-1’ and MMR1 vaccines measured at 5 years
• in England, vaccination coverage varies geographically and is lowest for all antigens in London
• vaccination coverage measured this quarter remains below peaks in coverage reported in the previous 10-year period, but has remained stable or increased from the previous quarter for many antigens

Data for quarters 1 to 3 has been re-published alongside this report to align each quarterly publication in the year to a revised methodology applied to Q4 for 14 upper tier local authorities (UTLAs) in London. For these UTLAs only children registered with a GP are included in the data until data on children not registered with a GP can be validated.

The 14 UTLAs for which data has been affected are: Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Westminster, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Hounslow. More information is in the Data sources and methodology section.

Coverage at 12 months

Compared with the previous quarter, UK coverage for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine as well as the MenB vaccine, measured at 12 months, both remained stable at 91.8% and 91.7% respectively. PCV1 coverage decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 93.5% and rotavirus coverage increased by 0.4 percentage points to 89.7%.

In England, 12-month coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ increased by 0.1 percentage points to 91.5%, MenB increased by 0.1 percentage points to 91.4%, rotavirus coverage increased by 0.4 percentage points to 89.3%, and PCV1 coverage decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 93.2%.

Excluding London as the region with the lowest coverage, across all other English regions ‘6-in-1’ coverage at 12 months was 92.4%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; PCV1 coverage was 94.2%, 1.0 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; rotavirus was 90.2%, 0.9 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage and MenB coverage was 92.4%, 1.0 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage.

In Scotland and Wales, coverage was above 94% for all antigens at 12 months except for rotavirus, for which coverage was 92.9% and 92.3% respectively. In Northern Ireland coverage was above 90% for all antigens except rotavirus, for which coverage was 88.5%.

Compared to the previous quarter, ‘6-in-1’ coverage decreased in the Midlands (0.2 percentage points), the North East and Yorkshire (0.5 percentage points), and the South West (0.6 percentage points).

There was an increase in ‘6-in-1’ coverage in the east of England (0.2 percentage points), London (0.2 percentage points), the North West (1.0 percentage points), and the South East (1.0 percentage points).

Coverage varies by geography. Full coverage data by country, NHS England local team (configuration as of 1 April 2018), NHS England region, UTLA and UKHSA region is contained in the data file accompanying this report. Coverage for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured in children aged 12 months is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine measured in children aged 12 months in England for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA

Source of vaccine coverage data: UKHSA.
Source of boundaries: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025

Coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine measured at 12 months varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 1 is available in the data file accompanying this report.

In England over the last ten years, coverage for the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine peaked at 93.9% in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015, and at 91.5% this quarter was 2.4 percentage points lower than the peak (Figure 2a). Coverage of PCV1 in this quarter at 93.2% was 0.9 percentage points lower than the peak coverage of 94.1% in quarter 1 of 2022 to 2023 (Figure 2b). Rotavirus coverage this quarter was 1.6 percentage points lower than the peak of 90.9% in quarter 1 of 2020 to 2021 (Figure 2d), while MenB coverage was 1.6 percentage points lower than the peak of 93.0% in quarter 3 of 2017 to 2018 (Figure 2c).

Figure 2a. Coverage of the primary course of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine in England measured at 12 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025 [note 1]

Note 1: the ‘5-in-1’ (DTaP/IPV/Hib3) vaccine was used prior to August 2017 when it was replaced with the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib3/HepB). As a result, from quarter 4 of 2018 to 2019 coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine is reported rather than ‘5-in-1.’

Figure 2b. Coverage of the PCV vaccine in England measured at 12 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025 [note 2]

Note 2: from quarter 4 (January to March) 2020 to 2021, PCV1 rather than PCV2 is reported to reflect the change in the PCV schedule.

Figure 2c. Coverage of the MenB vaccine in England measured at 12 months between quarter 2 2016 to 2017 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 2d. Coverage of the rotavirus vaccine in England measured at 12 months between quarter 1 2015 to 2016 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Coverage at 24 months

In the UK, compared with the previous quarter, coverage in children aged 24 months of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 92.9%. PCV booster coverage remained stable at 88.6% as did MMR1 coverage at 89.2%, MenB booster coverage at 88.0%, and Hib/MenC booster at 89.0%.

In England, 24-month coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ decreased by 0.1 percentage points to 92.5%. Coverage of the MenB, the PCV booster, MMR1, and Hib/MenC vaccines each increased by 0.1 percentage points, resulting in coverages of 87.5% (MenB), 88.1% (PCV booster), 88.8% (MMR1), and 88.6% (Hib/MenC).

In England excluding London as the region with the lowest coverage, ‘6-in-1’ coverage at 24 months was 93.7%, 1.2 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; PCV booster coverage was 89.9%, 1.8 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; MMR1 was 90.5%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; MenB coverage was 89.4%, 1.9 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage; and Hib/MenC coverage was 90.4%, 1.8 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage.

In Scotland and Wales, coverage was above 92% for all antigens at 24 months. In Northern Ireland coverage was above 88% for all antigens except for MenB, for which coverage was 87.4%.

Compared to the previous quarter, MMR1 coverage decreased in London (0.1 percentage points), the South East (0.4 percentage points), and the South West (0.1 percentage points).

There was an increase in MMR1 coverage in the east of England (0.1 percentage points), the North East and Yorkshire (0.6 percentage points), and the North West (0.1 percentage points).

Coverage varies by geography. Full coverage data by country, region, and UTLA is contained in the data file accompanying this report.

Coverage for the MMR1 vaccine for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured at 24 months is presented in Figure 3.

Figure 3. Coverage of MMR1 vaccine measured in children aged 24 months in England for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA

Source of vaccine coverage data: UKHSA.
Source of boundaries: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025

Coverage of the MMR vaccine measured at 24 months varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 3 is available in the data file accompanying this report.

In England over the last ten years, coverage for the ‘6-in-1’ at 24 months peaked in quarter 2 of 2015 to 2016 at 95.6%, 3.1 percentage points higher than the current quarter coverage of 92.5% (Figure 4a). For the PCV booster, coverage was 88.1%, 4.3 percentage points lower than the peak of 92.4% in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015 (Figure 4b). At 88.6%, the Hib/MenC booster was 3.7 percentage points lower than the peak coverage of 92.3% in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015 (Figure 4c). MMR1 peaked at 92.4% in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015, 3.6 percentage points higher than the coverage of 88.8% in the current quarter (Figure 4d). MenB coverage was 87.5%, 2.0 percentage points lower than the peak of 89.5% in quarter 2 of 2020 to 2021 (Figure 4e).

Figure 4a. Coverage of the primary course of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine in England measured at 24 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025 [note 1]

Note 1: the ‘5-in-1’ (DTaP/IPV/Hib3) vaccine was used prior to August 2017 when it was replaced with the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib3/HepB). As a result, from quarter 4 of 2018 to 2019 coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine is reported rather than ‘5-in-1.’

Figure 4b. Coverage of the PCV booster in England measured at 24 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 4c. Coverage of the Hib/MenC booster in England measured at 24 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 4d. Coverage of the MMR1 in England measured at 24 months between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 4e. Coverage of the MenB booster in England measured at 24 months between quarter 3 2017 to 2018 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Coverage at 5 years

In the UK, coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine increased by 0.1 percentage points to 93.4% and MMR1 increased by 0.3 percentage points to 92.8%. Coverage at 5 years for these vaccines primarily reflects vaccinations delivered 4 years ago.

MMR2 and the preschool booster (DTaP/IPV) are given from age 3 years and 4 months and reflect vaccinations that should have been delivered between May to July 2023.

In the UK, MMR2 coverage increased by 0.5 percentage points to 85.2% and DTaP/IPV booster increased by 0.9 percentage points to 83.6%. Hib/MenC increased by 0.5 percentage points to 90.3%.

In England, coverage at 5 years of the ‘6-in-1’ increased by 0.1 percentage points to 93.0%, MMR1 coverage increased by 0.3 percentage points to 92.4%, MMR2 coverage increased by 0.5 percentage points to 84.5%, Hib/MenC increased by 0.4 percentage points to 89.7%, and DTaP/IPV increased by 1.0 percentage point to 82.7%.

In England excluding London as the region with the lowest coverage, ‘6-in-1’ coverage at 5 years was 94.3%, 1.3 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage, MMR1 was 93.9%, 1.5 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage, MMR2 coverage was 87.3%, 2.8 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage, DTaP/IPV coverage was 85.8%, 3.1 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage and Hib/MenC coverage was 91.4%, 1.7 percentage points higher than the overall England coverage.

Both Scotland and Wales exceeded the 95% WHO target for coverage for both the ‘6-in-1’ and MMR1 vaccines measured at 5 years. For all other vaccinations measured at 5 years, coverage in Scotland was 90% and above, and coverage in Wales was 89% and above. In Northern Ireland, coverage for the ‘6-in-1’, MMR1, and Hib/MenC was above 93% and above 86% for MMR2 and the DTaP/IPV booster.

Compared to the previous quarter, there was an increase in MMR1 coverage in all regions: the east of England (0.5 percentage points), London (0.5 percentage points), the South West (0.5 percentage points), the South East (0.1 percentage points), the Midlands (0.1 percentage points), the North East and Yorkshire (0.2 percentage points), and the North West (0.2 percentage points).

Coverage of MMR2 also increased in the east of England (0.7 percentage points), London (1.2 percentage points), the Midlands (0.3 percentage points), the North West (0.6 percentage points), the South West (0.2 percentage points), and the South East (0.5 percentage points). However, there was a decrease in coverage in the North East And Yorkshire (0.3 percentage points).

Coverage varies by geography. Full coverage data by country, region, and UTLA is contained in the data file accompanying this report.

Coverage for the MMR2 vaccine for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA measured in children aged 5 years is presented in Figure 5.

Figure 5. Coverage of MMR2 vaccine measured in children aged 5 years in England for quarter 4 2024 to 2025 by UTLA.

Source of vaccine coverage data: UKHSA.
Source of boundaries: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0 Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2025

Coverage of the MMR2 vaccine measured at 5 years varies by UTLA. The data underlying Figure 5 is available in the data file accompanying this report.

In England over the last 10 years, coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine was 3.0 percentage points lower this quarter than the peak of 96.0% in quarter 2 of 2017 to 2018 (Figure 6a). MMR1 was down by 3.2 percentage points from a peak of 95.6% in quarter 1 of 2017 to 2018 (Figure 6b). MMR2 was down by 4.0 percentage points when compared with 88.5% coverage reported in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015 (Figure 6c). The pre-school booster was 5.9 percentage points lower than at its peak of 88.6% in quarter 4 of 2014 to 2015, and Hib/MenC coverage was 3.6 percentage points lower than the peak of 93.3% in quarter 3 of 2015 to 2016 (Figures 6d and 6e).

Figure 6a. Coverage of the primary course of the 6-in-1 vaccine in England measured at 5 years between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025 [note 1]

Note 1: the ‘5-in-1’ (DTaP/IPV/Hib3) vaccine was used prior to August 2017 when it was replaced with the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib3/HepB). As a result, from quarter 4 of 2018 to 2019 coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine is reported rather than ‘5-in-1.’

Figure 6b. Coverage of MMR1 in England measured at 5 years between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 6c. Coverage of MMR2 in England measured at 5 years between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 6d. Coverage of pre-school booster (DTaP/IPV) in England measured at 5 years between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Figure 6e. Coverage of the Hib/MenC booster in England measured at 5 years between quarter 4 2014 to 2015 to 2015 and quarter 4 2024 to 2025

Children aged 5 years in this quarter were born in Q4 2019 to 2020. When they were aged 12 months, coverage in this birth cohort for the 6-in-1 was 91.6%. By 24 months it was 93.0%, and this quarter at 5 years it is 93.0% (Figure 7a). In comparison with the birth cohorts from the previous 5 quarters, coverage when they were aged 12 months and 24 months was lower, but by 5 years, coverage is comparable, suggesting that they were caught up. This birth cohort would have become eligible for the ‘6-in-1’ from March to July 2020, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when health services faced disruption. As a note, birth cohorts over time do not necessarily include the same children due to population movement.

Figure 7a. Coverage of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccine across England measured in children aged 5 years when they were aged 12 months, 24 months, and 5 years

Neonatal hepatitis B vaccine coverage: England

National coverage at 12 months for 5 doses of a HepB-containing vaccine decreased by 0.2 percentage points from 95.2% to 95.0% compared with the previous quarter. Coverage of 6 doses of a HepB-containing vaccine reported for children who reached 2 years of age in the reporting quarter (those born January to March 2023) increased by 1.0 percentage points to 89.8% compared with the last quarter (88.8%) (see the data file accompanying this report).

The quality of neonatal HepB vaccine data is variable and coverage by former local teams can be based on small numbers. As such, comparisons of percentages should be considered alongside denominators. Where an area reported no vaccinated children, a check was made to ensure that this was zero reporting rather than absence of available data.

Neonatal BCG vaccine coverage: England

The data captures BCG coverage at age 3 months for children born October to December 2024 and at age 12 months for children born January to March 2024. The data was provided for all local authorities in England and is published in the data tables accompanying this report. Measured at 3 months, coverage in England was 75.7% and measured at 12 months, it was 85.1%.

Data sources and methodology

Data was received from all health boards in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In England, local teams and Child Health Record Departments provided data for all UTLAs and the associated general practices.

In this report and the accompanying data set Hackney is included in the City of London, and Cumbria is reported as a single UTLA. For 14 UTLAs in London, until data on children not registered with a GP can be validated, only children registered with a GP are included in the data. The affected UTLAs are Greenwich, Hammersmith and Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea, Lambeth, Lewisham, Southwark, Westminster, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, and Hounslow. Coverage in these UTLAs will be higher than coverage measured when including the unregistered population. However, these coverage estimates will more closely reflect the true coverage in the population until the data on children not registered with a GP is fully validated.

All English data was collected through NHS Digital’s Strategic Data Collection Service. Individual local authority and GP data, including numerators, denominators, coverage and relevant caveats where applicable, is available in the data tables accompanying this report. GP-level data was censored when individual values were less than 5.

These statistics are subject to both scheduled revisions and unscheduled corrections and are therefore marked as provisional. In addition to correction of any errors made during the production of these statistics, unscheduled corrections also include the correction of errors later identified within the source data received by UKHSA. Revisions and corrections are made timely and transparently in line with UKHSA’s published Revisions and corrections policy. Please see our COVER programme quality and methodology for further information.

Background information

This publication is released on a quarterly basis and aligns with financial quarters. The analysis follows this pattern. Any discussion of quarters aligns with the financial year whereby quarter 1 starts in April.

Children who reached their first birthday in this quarter would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the combined diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis vaccine, inactivated poliomyelitis vaccine, haemophilus influenzae type b vaccine and hepatitis B vaccine (DTaP/IPV/Hib/HepB3 or ‘6-in-1’ vaccination) which protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), polio, haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) and hepatitis B, and their primary course (second dose) of MenB vaccine which protects against meningococcal group B disease at the age of 16 weeks, May 2024 to July 2024. They would have also been scheduled to receive a single dose of PCV (protecting against pneumococcal disease) and 2 doses of rotavirus vaccine at age 12 weeks, April 2024 to June 2024.

Except for the rotavirus vaccine which is only offered up to 6 months of age, all other vaccines are available to children in the current cohort at any time and would have been captured in this report if given by their first birthday. Children born to hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)-positive mothers who reached their first birthday in this quarter should also have received monovalent hepatitis B vaccine at birth and at 4 weeks of age.

Children who reached their second birthday would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccination in May to July 2023 and their first MMR vaccination, a Hib/MenC booster (protecting against haemophilus influenzae type b and meningococcal group C disease), MenB booster and PCV booster at one year of age in January to March 2024. Children born to HBsAg-positive mothers, who reached their second birthday in this quarter (born January to March 2023), were scheduled to receive a third dose monovalent hepatitis B vaccine at one year of age.

Children who reached their fifth birthday would have been scheduled to receive their primary course (third dose) of the ‘6-in-1’ vaccination in May to July 2020, their first MMR and the Hib/MenC booster in January to March 2021, their pre-school diphtheria, tetanus, acellular pertussis and polio (DTaP/IPV) booster, and second-dose MMR from May to July 2023.

Children born in areas where the TB incidence is greater than or equal to 40 per 100,000 or who are born to parents or grandparents from TB endemic areas were eligible for a BCG vaccination at 28 days. Coverage is measured at 3 months of age and 12 months of age for this selective immunisation.

The full routine immunisation schedule sets out the schedule for all childhood immunisations.

Related statistics

• Quarterly data for England

• Annual data for England

• Data for Wales

• Data for Scotland

• Data for Northern Ireland

Further information and contact details

The submission and publication dates for this report series are available online, as is additional information for immunisation practitioners and other health professionals.

Feedback and contact information

For any questions or comments regarding this report, please email cover@ukhsa.gov.uk

Alternatively, you can contact OSR with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Official statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

UKHSA is committed to ensuring that these statistics comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics. This means users can have confidence in the people who produce UKHSA statistics because our statistics are robust, reliable and accurate. Our statistics are regularly reviewed to ensure they support the needs of society for information.

UKHSA has conducted a formal review of these statistics. Following this review, an implementation plan has been developed to continue to improve the trustworthiness, quality, and value of these statistics. Key continuous improvements made will be highlighted within future releases of these statistics for transparency.