Immunisation

Introduction

Vaccines, along with improvements in sanitation and hygiene, have reduced the spread of infectious diseases worldwide and are estimated to save up to 5 million lives each year.¹ This section provides an overview of uptake of the most common vaccines administered through Australia’s National Immunisation Program (NIP). Queensland Health is also responsible for funding and providing state-funded immunisation programs, such as for meningococcal B.

Immunisation targets vary based on factors such as age, the health impacts of specific conditions, and individual risk factors such as being immunocompromised. For childhood vaccines, the goal is to have 95% of children age appropriately vaccinated and vaccinated on time.

For information about vaccines in pregnancy, see the Maternal and child health section of this report.

Immunisation programs

The National Immunisation Program (NIP) provides government-funded vaccines for population groups at greatest risk of severe outcomes from vaccine preventable disease.² Queensland Health distributes NIP vaccines through the Immunisation Program to over 2,700 immunisation providers across Queensland.³

Currently funded NIP vaccines include those against measles, mumps, rubella, polio, diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (whooping cough), varicella (chickenpox), herpes-zoster (shingles), hepatitis A and B, Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), meningococcal ACWY, influenza, human papillomavirus (HPV), pneumococcal and rotaviral diseases and most recently the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV).

In addition, Queensland Health oversees:

• vaccines for diseases that are at high risk in certain areas or for certain people, such as Japanese encephalitis, rabies and, more recently, mpox
• the Queensland Specialist Immunisation Services, which provides immunisation services for children with complex vaccination needs
• the School Immunisation Program (SIP), which offers free vaccinations in schools to all Queensland Year 7 and Year 10 students.

Immunisation coverage by target group

Early childhood immunisation

The Queensland childhood vaccination target is 95% at age 1, 2 and 5-years.³ Queensland maintains high childhood immunisation rates, with coverage approaching the target rate at each age milestone.

Based on the combined quarters from December 2023 to September 2024, early childhood vaccination coverage was:⁴

• 91.6% for 1-year-olds and 92.5% nationally for 1-year-olds
• 90.1% for 2-year-olds and 90.7% nationally for 2-year-olds
• 92.5% for 5-year-olds and 93.8% nationally for 5-year-olds.

After peaking in 2020, vaccination coverage rates based on calendar year results have declined in all three age groups, both in Queensland and nationally (Figure 1).⁵

Figure 1: Queensland and national trends in the proportion of children immunised at 1, 2 and 5-years

Adolescents

Among Queensland adolescents in 2023 (Figure 2):⁶

• 71.5% of those turning 13 years had received an adolescent dose of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis vaccine (dTpa)
• 77.5% of those turning 14 years had received a dose of dTpa and of those turning 15 years, 83.1% had received a dose with marginal increases seen in each successive age group up to those turning 18 years
• 63.1% of those turning 16 years had received an adolescent dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine, with coverage increasing with age reaching 77.0% in those turning 19
• 69.7% of those turning 18 years had complete vaccination coverage using a composite measure (receipt of an HPV vaccine dose and adolescent doses of both dTpa and meningococcal ACWY vaccine)
• for those 10 to less than 20 years, influenza vaccination coverage was lower in 2023 (14.7%) than in 2022 (19.7%).

Australia’s national strategy for the elimination of cervical cancer calls for a focus on equity and has an HPV vaccination target of 90% for both females and males, building on the World Health Organization's global target of 90% coverage for all girls by age 15 by 2030.⁷

In 2023, 83.2% of Queensland girls and 80.9% of Queensland boys were vaccinated against HPV at the age of 15 years. This was the higher than in previous years, but lower than the corresponding national rates (85.9% for females and 83.4% for males; Figure 2).⁸ From February 2023, HPV vaccines began to be administered as a single dose vaccine rather than a two-dose vaccine. This change contributed to the apparent rise in vaccination rate observed in 2023.

Figure 2: Queensland and national trends in the proportion of adolescents vaccinated against HPV at 15 years of age

Adults

Some vaccines are provided at no cost to adults who are older, have high-risk medical conditions, are pregnant, or are First Nations peoples. Funded vaccines include those against pertussis, tetanus, diphtheria, influenza, herpes zoster, meningococcal, pneumococcal, Hib and in some circumstances under state funding, the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine.²

Among Queensland adults in 2023, coverage with:⁶

• herpes zoster vaccination (receipt of one dose of Zostavax or two doses of Shingrix, given at least 4 weeks apart) for adults turning 71 years of age was 45.3% in 2023, down from 52.6% in 2022. This was higher than the national coverage rates (41.0% in 2023 and 41.3% in 2022)
• an adult dose of 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (13vPCV) in adults turning 71 years was 41.0%, up from 38.1% in 2022
• influenza vaccination decreased in 2023 compared to 2022 in all three adult age groups—from 27.0% to 22.1% in the 20 to less than 50 years age group, 44.9% to 36.7% in the 50 to less than 65 years age group and 69.4% to 64.8% in those 65 years and older. This pattern was evident nationally and in all in jurisdictions.

Additional information

Data and statistics

Visit the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance

• Immunisation reports
• Interactive immunisation coverage data

Visit the Department of Health and Aged Care for

• childhood vaccination coverage tables
• the latest COVID-19 vaccination numbers and statistics.

Strategies and information

More information is available at Vaccination Matters from the Queensland government.

Section technical notes

Vaccinations received by individuals are recorded on Australian Immunisation Register, a national, whole-of-life register managed by Services Australia. Individuals appear on the AIR when they register with Medicare or their immunisation provider reports a vaccination encounter; only a recognised vaccination provider can update the AIR. The AIR includes vaccines given under the NIP, through school programs or those received privately such as travel vaccines. For details of the methods used to calculate coverage, refer to the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance annual coverage reports.

Immunisation coverage results may differ slightly from estimates published elsewhere due to differences in calculation methodologies and extraction date differences. Please see original sources for dates used in other reporting systems.

Figures on this page are interactive

To learn more about how to navigate interactive figures, dashboards, and visualisations see About this Report.