As of February 2023, Bremen recorded the highest second dose coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination rate. The vaccination rollout in Germany began after the approval of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in the EU. To be completely effective, the vaccine has to be administered in two doses, in two separate sessions. Booster vaccinations are also available. Other vaccines have also been approved in the EU since then.

In 2019, roughly 93 percent of German children starting school were vaccinated against tetanus in 2018. Other vaccinations for this group were against measles, mumps, and chicken pox.

Currently around 127.7 million coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations have taken place in Germany since the beginning of the campaign at the end of December 2020. The vaccination rollout followed the approval of the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine in the EU. Other vaccines have since been allowed. Vaccinations are free and voluntary in Germany. The total number of vaccinations mentioned here includes both first and second doses. Most vaccines need to be administered in two doses to be effective against the virus.

As of January 18, 2023, Portugal had the highest COVID-19 vaccination rate in Europe having administered 272.78 doses per 100 people in the country, while Malta had administered 258.49 doses per 100. The UK was the first country in Europe to approve the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for widespread use and began inoculations on December 8, 2020, and so far have administered 224.04 doses per 100. At the latest data, Belgium had carried out 253.89 doses of vaccines per 100 population. Russia became the first country in the world to authorize a vaccine - named Sputnik V - for use in the fight against COVID-19 in August 2020. As of August 4, 2022, Russia had administered 127.3 doses per 100 people in the country.

The seven-day rate of cases across Europe shows an ongoing perspective of which countries are worst affected by the virus relative to their population. For further information about the coronavirus pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Forecast: Diphtheria, Tetanus and Pertussis Vaccination Rates Among Children in Germany 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

The immunisation of measles in Germany saw no significant changes in 2021 in comparison to the previous year 2020 and remained at around 97.4 percent of children aged less than one year. Still, the immunisation reached its highest value in the observed period in 2021. Find more statistics on other topics about Germany with key insights such as number of annual dentist visits per capita and share of children immunized against hepatitis B.

Forecast: Total Influenza Vaccination Rates in Germany 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

Introduction: Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) significantly reduces the risk for malignant diseases like cervix, anal or penile cancer. However, although vaccination rates are rising, they are still too low mirroring a lack of disease awareness in the community. This study aims to evaluate knowledge about HPV vaccination as well as the vaccination rate among German medical students. Material & methods: Medical students were surveyed during a German medical students' football tournament. The self-designed survey on HPV vaccination consisted of 24-items. The data collection was anonymous. Results: Among 974 participating medical students 64.9% (632) were women, 335 (34.4%) were male and 7 (0,7%) were non-binary. Mean age was 23.1 +- 2.7 (+- standard deviation (SD); range 18-35) years. Respondents had studied mean 6.6 +- 3.3 (1-16) semesters and 39.4% (383) had completed medical education in urology. 613 (64%) respondents reported that HPV had been discussed during their studies. 7.6% (74) had never heard of HPV. In a multivariate model female gender, the knowledge about HPV, and having worked on the topic were significantly associated with being HPV-vaccinated. Older students were vaccinated less likely. Conclusions: Better knowledge and having worked on the topic of HPV were associated with a higher vaccination rate. However, even in this highly selected group the knowledge about HPV vaccination was low. Consequently, more information and awareness campaigns on HPV vaccination are needed in Germany to increase vaccination rates.

This dataset replicates all statistical models and figures from the study Left-Right-Position, Party Affiliation and Regional Differences Explain Low Covid-19 Vaccination Rates in Germany.

This replication package contains the raw data and code to replicate the findings reported in the paper. The data are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License. The code is licensed under a Modified BSD License. See LICENSE.txt for details.

Software requirements

All analysis were done in Stata version 16:

Add-on packages are included in scripts/libraries/stata and do not need to be installed by user. The names, installation sources, and installation dates of these packages are available in scripts/libraries/stata/stata.trk.

Instructions

Save the folder ‘replication_PLOS’ to your local drive.

Open the master script ‘run.do’ and change the global pointing to the working direction (line 20) to the location where you save the folder on your local drive

Run the master script ‘run.do’ to replicate the analysis and generate all tables and figures reported in the paper and supplementary online materials

Datasets

Wave 1 – Survey experiment: ‘wave1_survey_experiment_raw.dta’

Wave 2 – Follow-up Survey: ‘wave2_follow_up_raw.dta'

Map: shape-files ‘plz2stellig.shp’ ‘OSM_PLZ.shp’, area codes ‘Postleitzahlengebiete-_OSM.csv’_, (all links to the sources can be found in the script ‘04_figure2_germany_map.do’)

Pretest: ‘pre-test_corona_raw.dta’

For Appendix S7: ‘alter_geschlecht_zensus_det.xlsx’, ‘vaccination_landkreis_raw.dta’, ‘census2020_age_gender.csv’ (all links to the sources can be found in the script ‘06_AppendixS7.do’)

For Appendix S10: ‘vaccination_landkreis_raw.dta’ (all links to the sources can be found in the script ‘07_AppendixS10.do’)

Descriptions of scripts

1_1_clean_wave1.do This script processes the raw data from wave 1, the survey experiment 1_2_clean_wave2.do This script processes the raw data from wave 2, the follow-up survey 1_3_merge_generate.do This script creates the datasets used in the main analysis and for robustness checks by merging the cleaned data from wave 1 and 2, tests the exclusion criteria and creates additional variables 02_analysis.do This script estimates regression models in Stata, creates figures and tables, saving them to results/figures and results/tables 03_robustness_checks_no_exclusion.do This script runs the main analysis using the dataset without applying the exclusion criteria. Results are saved in results/tables 04_figure2_germany_map.do This script creates Figure 2 in the main manuscript using publicly available data on vaccination numbers in Germany. 05_figureS1_dogmatism_scale.do This script creates Figure S1 using data from a pretest to adjust the dogmatism scale. 06_AppendixS7.do This script creates the figures and tables provided in Appendix S7 on the representativity of our sample compared to the German average using publicly available data about the age distribution in Germany. 07_AppendixS10.do This script creates the figures and tables provided in Appendix S10 on the external validity of vaccination rates in our sample using publicly available data on vaccination numbers in Germany.

The annual influenza vaccination has been officially recommended for medical staff in Germany since 1988. Nevertheless, the vaccination rate among medical staff is still low. The present study deals with the influenza vaccination rate of staff at a German University hospital over time as well as with the reasons that led to a positive vaccination decision and the barriers to acceptance of vaccination. For this purpose, the staff members received questionnaires in which they were asked about influenza vaccination and the reasons for or against vaccination. In addition, the questionnaire contains information on gender, age group, occupational group and presence of a chronic co-morbidity. Logistic regression analysis was used to investigate which of these predictors most strongly influenced the vaccination decision. It was shown that the reasons for or against vaccination differ significantly between the occupational groups and that the occupational group affiliation has the greatest influence on the vaccination decision in the comparison of the investigated predictors. In order to achieve a positive influence on vaccination acceptance, future measures should focus on increasing confidence in vaccination and on increasing the perception of risk from influenza illness. The findings may contribute to future targeted strategies to increase vaccination rates and suggest occupational group-specific interventions.

COVID-19 vaccination rates slowed in many countries during the second half of 2021, along with the emergence of vocal opposition, particularly to mandated vaccinations. Who are those resisting vaccination? Under what conditions do they change their minds? Our 3-wave representative panel survey from Germany allows us to estimate the dynamics of vaccine opposition, providing the following answers. Without mandates it may be difficult to reach and to sustain the near universal level of repeated vaccinations apparently required to contain the Delta, Omicron and likely subsequent variants. But mandates substantially increase opposition to vaccination. We find that few were opposed to voluntary vaccination in all three waves of the survey. They are just 3.3 percent of our panel, a number that we demonstrate is unlikely to be the result of response error. In contrast, the fraction consistently opposed to enforced vaccinations is 16.5 percent. Under both policies, those consistently opposed and those switching from opposition to supporting vaccination are socio-demographically virtually indistinguishable from other Germans. Thus, the mechanisms accounting for the dynamics of vaccine attitudes may apply generally across societal groups. What differentiates them from others are their beliefs about vaccination effectiveness, trust in public institutions, and whether they perceive enforced vaccination as a restriction on their freedom. We find that changing these beliefs is both possible and necessary to increase vaccine willingness, even in the case of mandates. An inference is that well-designed policies of persuasion and enforcement will be complementary, not alternatives. This data set provides the data and Stata code used for the article. A detailed description of the variables is available from the corresponding publication. Please cite our paper if you use the data. Nicht-WahrscheinlichkeitsauswahI - Quotenstichprobe Web-basiertes Interview

Vaccination willingness against COVID-19 is generally perceived as low. Moreover, there is large heterogeneity across and within countries. As a whole, Germany has average vaccination rates compared to other industrialized countries. However, vaccination rates in the 16 different German federal states differ by more than 20 percentage points. We describe variation in vaccination rates on the level of the 400 German counties using data on all vaccinations carried out until December 2022. Around 52-72% of that variation can be explained by regional differences in demographic characteristics, housing, education and political party preferences. We find indications that the remaining part may be due to differences in soft factors such as risk aversion, trust in the German government, trust in science, and beliefs in conspiracy theories regarding the origins of the Corona virus. We conclude that improving the trust in science and the fight against conspiracy theories may possibly be effective tools to improve vaccination rates and effectively fight pandemics.

Germany DE: Immunization: Measles: % of Children Aged 12-23 Months data was reported at 97.000 % in 2023. This stayed constant from the previous number of 97.000 % for 2022. Germany DE: Immunization: Measles: % of Children Aged 12-23 Months data is updated yearly, averaging 94.000 % from Dec 1980 (Median) to 2023, with 44 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 97.000 % in 2023 and a record low of 25.000 % in 1980. Germany DE: Immunization: Measles: % of Children Aged 12-23 Months data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Germany – Table DE.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Child immunization, measles, measures the percentage of children ages 12-23 months who received the measles vaccination before 12 months or at any time before the survey. A child is considered adequately immunized against measles after receiving one dose of vaccine.;WHO and UNICEF (http://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/en/).;Weighted average;

The vaccination coverage against diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough of German children remained mostly steady during the observed time period, amounting to ** percent in 2021. These vaccinations are among the most common for children in Germany.

Immunization, measles (% of children ages 12-23 months) in Germany was reported at 97 % in 2023, according to the World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially recognized sources. Germany - Immunization, measles (% of children ages 12-23 months) - actual values, historical data, forecasts and projections were sourced from the World Bank on August of 2025.

Pneumococcal vaccination rates with 95%-confidence intervals within two years in patients with “high-risk” condition for pneumococcal disease.

Germany DE: Immunization: HepB3: % of One-Year-Old Children data was reported at 87.000 % in 2023. This stayed constant from the previous number of 87.000 % for 2022. Germany DE: Immunization: HepB3: % of One-Year-Old Children data is updated yearly, averaging 87.000 % from Dec 1993 (Median) to 2023, with 31 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 90.000 % in 2005 and a record low of 15.000 % in 1993. Germany DE: Immunization: HepB3: % of One-Year-Old Children data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Germany – Table DE.World Bank.WDI: Social: Health Statistics. Child immunization rate, hepatitis B is the percentage of children ages 12-23 months who received hepatitis B vaccinations before 12 months or at any time before the survey. A child is considered adequately immunized after three doses.;WHO and UNICEF (http://www.who.int/immunization/monitoring_surveillance/en/).;Weighted average;

Experimental design: Factors and levels.

Characteristics of patients with first episode of “high-risk” condition for pneumococcal disease according to STIKO.