Fewer Americans Believe Childhood Vaccinations Are Important, Gallup Poll

More Republicans and Republican leaning independents don't believe vaccines are necessary.

According to a recent Gallup poll, few Americans today think that childhood vaccines are important.

The survey showed that 40% of parents think it’s “extremely important” for their children to get vaccinated—down from 58% in 2019 and 645 in 2001.

The poll, conducted between July 1 and July 21, also found that a growing number of adults in the U.S. say that vaccines are more dangerous than the diseases they are created to prevent. In 2024, 20% deemed vaccines dangerous, nearly double the amount in 2019 (11%). Only six percent of Americans subscribed to this belief in 2001.

The study also found the decline in the belief in the importance of vaccines was mostly present amongst Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents saw very little change in their beliefs since 2001.

In previous surveys, Republicans and Democrats had similar views on the risks and benefits of vaccines. The data indicated that the gap between Democrats and Republicans widened significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic. A 2020 Pew Research poll reported that 78% of Democrats considered the virus to be a major threat to health compared to 52% of Republicans.

“This political divide reflected the tendency for Democratic elected officials and party supporters to follow guidance on COVID-19 provided by medical authorities, while Republican elected officials and Republican identifiers were often skeptical of the reliability of that information,” the report said. “Now, those doubts appear to be extending to childhood vaccines that have long been used to prevent the spread of contagious diseases, as well as the field of science in general.”

Additionally, Americans are now less likely to say the government should require children to be vaccinated against contagious diseases. In 1991, over 80% of Americans favored vaccine requirements, but today, only 51% support this view.