Vaccination rates are declining in EU countries, with Denmark and Ireland leading the way

Sunday, Dec 14, 2025

Il Sole 24 Ore

EU vaccination rates for seniors are declining amid vaccine hesitancy and misinformation across various countries.

🔗 Read the article on ilsole24ore.com

[This is an automatically generated summary, for reference only]

Influenza vaccination rates among people aged 65 and over in EU countries have shown a decline from 48.4% in 2022 to 47.1% in 2023, amidst fears and false myths. Denmark leads with the highest rate at 77.5%, while Poland has the lowest at 9.6%. Bulgaria showed the largest increase in vaccination rates for this age group (+46.2%). While EU policies aim to make flu vaccines accessible, influenza caused 7,589 deaths in the EU in 2022. Experts stress the importance of vaccination for prevention and protecting vulnerable individuals. In Bulgaria, childhood immunization coverage has recovered post-pandemic due to efforts by primary care physicians. Spain’s decline is mainly seen in seasonal respiratory vaccinations among adults, attributed to reduced risk perception. Romania faces a critical issue with MMR vaccine coverage, which is low, leading to measles outbreaks fueled by parental resistance and misinformation.

🔗 Read the original article

Previous page The passion for candles in the EU: Imports from outside Europe totalled €513 million
Next page Anti-corruption fury and fear of a "Romanian scenario": How massive protests in Bulgaria, which brought out young people from Generation Z, toppled the government led by two prominent political figures

© 2026 Pulse - Europe beyond the beat


PULSE is an initiative for cross-border collaborative journalism in Europe co-funded by the European Commission under Grant Agreement n. PO 4500158093.

PULSE is an initiative coordinated by OBCT that has been promoting intensive journalistic cross-border collaborations in Europe since 2024. Its main aim is to help strengthen the European public sphere by reporting on and telling stories from new and diverse perspectives.

At the heart of PULSE are 10 leading national news outlets (Delfi – Lithuania, Deník Referendum – Czechia, Der Standard – Austria, EfSyn – Greece, El Confidencial – Spain, Gazeta Wyborcza – Poland, HotNews – Romania, HVG – Hungary, Il Sole 24 Ore – Italy, Mediapool – Bulgaria) and three transnational organisations, including OBCT , n-ost and Voxeurop .

Additional outlets and journalists are involved as associate partners, including EUobserver , Føljeton (Denmark), H-Alter (Croatia), Levila (Estonia), Rubryka (Ukraine), and The Journal Investigates (Ireland).

PULSE is driven by a sort of virtual transnational newsroom made up of journalists from all the publications involved. It collaboratively produces new journalistic content on European issues on a daily basis, coming in many different languages. The editorial output amounts to over a thousand publications per year, mostly in article form.

PULSE also runs 4 thematic networks open to any European journalist interested in crucial issues such as EU enlargement, relations between the EU and other global powers, the EU’s green transition, or media and the information society. These networks function as online communities and periodically publish calls for pitches.