Childhood immunisation statistics Scotland
Quarter and year ending 31 December 2019

About this release

This release by Information Services Division provides an annual and quarterly update of immunisation uptake rates for children in Scotland. Vaccination programmes for children aim to protect the individual child from many serious infectious diseases and prevent the spread of disease in the wider population.

Information is shown by NHS Board and local authority, at 12 months, 24 months, five years and six years of age.

Main points

• Annual uptake rates remained high in Scotland in 2019; around 96% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months of age, apart from rotavirus vaccine, which had 93.2% uptake.
• Rotavirus vaccine must be given within a short time window (first dose before 15 weeks, second dose before 24 weeks), which explains the slightly lower uptake rate for this vaccine.
• The vast majority of children received their booster vaccines by 24 months of age; Hib/MenC (94.3%), Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) (94.4%), MenB (93.5%).
• For the MMR vaccine, which is first offered at 12 to 13 months of age:
  - 94.0% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 96.6% for children who reached age five in 2019.
  - Uptake of the second dose of MMR vaccine by five years was 91.4%, rising to 92.9% by age six years.

• Children from the more deprived areas were less likely to take up the vaccines than children in the less deprived areas.
• All measures of annual vaccine uptake at 12 months and the majority of vaccines measured at 5 years increased compared with 2018, while there were decreases in vaccine uptake as measured at 24 months and 6 years.
• Quarterly vaccine uptake rates also remained high. All measures of quarterly vaccine uptake at 12 and 24 months increased compared to the previous quarter; the majority of vaccines measured at 5 years remained static or increased, while there were decreases in vaccine uptake as measured at 6 years.

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) (external website) 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 helps to protect young children from infection that causes severe diarrhoea and vomiting. This vaccine should be given within the strict age limits of first dose before 15 weeks and second dose before 24 weeks of age.

Further information

For more information on Immunisations see the Immunisation section of our website (external website). For related topics, please see the Child Health (external website) pages.

The next release of this publication will be in June 2020.