Childhood immunisation statistics Scotland
Quarter and year ending 31 March 2020

About this release

This release by Public Health Scotland provides a quarterly update of immunisation uptake rates for children in Scotland. Immunisation 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.

Information on uptake among children eligible for immunisation during the COVID-19 pandemic is available on the wider impact dashboard in our COVID-19 webpages.

Main points

Quarterly uptake

• Uptake rates remained high in Scotland; over 96% of children had received each routine immunisation by the time they were 12 months old, apart from the rotavirus vaccine, which had 94.2% 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 (94.6%), Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV) (94.6%) and MenB (93.8%).
• The first dose of MMR vaccine is offered between 12 and 13 months old and the second dose at 3 years 4 months old. Although normally given at these times, if it's missed, it can be given at any age.
  • 94.2% of children had the first dose of MMR vaccine by 24 months of age. This rose to 96.4% for children who reached age five.
  • Uptake of the second dose of MMR vaccine by five years was 91.2%, rising to 93.0% by age six 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. 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 two dose course before 24 weeks. This explains why uptake of the completed two dose course of rotavirus vaccine is slightly lower than completed courses of the other vaccines offered in the first year of life.

Further information

This release also includes figures for the financial year ending 31 March 2020. We make available background metadata and information on our pre-release access.

Our annual report on childhood immunisation uptake rates in Scotland was published in March 2020. This report provides comprehensive commentary on immunisation including an outline of the UK childhood immunisation schedule, statistics by calendar year and an explanation of trends in uptake rates.

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 September 2020.