9 in 10 Korean children fully vaccinated, rates surpass global peers

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By Kim Hyun-bin

• Published Jul 29, 2025 12:00 PM KST

Nine out of 10 children in Korea received all recommended vaccinations by the corresponding age, with the country’s immunization rates exceeding those of other major countries by up to 19 percentage points, health authorities said Monday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), full vaccination coverage in 2023 reached 93.3 percent for 1-year-olds, 93.6 percent for 2-year-olds, 88.7 percent for 3-year-olds and 89.4 percent for 6-year-olds.

While the rate for 2-year-olds increased slightly from the previous year, coverage for other age groups, especially 1-year-olds, declined. The 3.1 percent drop among 1-year-olds was attributed to the addition of the rotavirus vaccine to the national program, which increased the total number of required doses.

Excluding the rotavirus vaccine, the full vaccination rate for 1-year-olds remained high at 96.2 percent, similar to the 96.4 percent recorded a year earlier. Uptake of the rotavirus vaccine itself rose to 94.2 percent after it became part of the national program, a 5.2 percentage point increase from previous rates.

The KDCA also noted that Korea outperformed other major countries in coverage of six key vaccines for 2-year-olds. The Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b) vaccine, for example, had a 95.4 percent coverage rate in Korea, compared to 76.8 percent in the United States, a gap of nearly 19 percentage points.

Hib is a serious bacterial infection that can cause life-threatening conditions such as meningitis, epiglottitis, pneumonia and cellulitis, especially in children under 5, the agency said.

"Vaccination remains the most effective method to build immunity against infectious diseases," KDCA Commissioner Lim Seung-kwan said, urging parents to follow the recommended immunization schedule.