NZ Index · Health

Better

Are children fully immunised by two years?

Health NZ’s Q4 2025/26 result is 83.7% fully immunised at 24 months, up from 82.0% in the same quarter a year earlier. Coverage remains below the 95% target, with a large Māori gap on the last ethnicity split (Q2 2025/26).

Verdict Better is derived from the official series · Data as of 23 Sept 2026

Fully immunised at 24 months

83.7 %

Target 95%

Health NZ / Te Whatu Ora (opens in a new tab) · More New Zealanders receiving the right care when they need it · Data as of 23 Sept 2026

Gaps — raw and official adjusted

ethnicity

Fully immunised at 24 months

Māori (quarter ended 2025-12-31) compared with European/Other (quarter ended 2025-12-31). Period 2025-12-31.

Raw gap

17.4 percentage points lower

67.8 vs 85.2 percentage points

Official adjusted gap

Not published

An explained share is not published — CivicNZ does not invent one.

Coverage is already age-specific (children turning 24 months). Health NZ has not published an official 24-month coverage gap adjusted for NZDep, rurality, GP enrolment, or travel time in the figure-23 CSV.

Measured factors

  • Applied

    Age structure (age-standardised rates)

    Milestone is age-specific (24 months). Age-structure confounding does not apply.

  • Not published

    Neighbourhood deprivation (NZDep)

    The official ethnicity CSV is not crossed with NZDep.

  • Not published

    Obesity prevalence

    Not an adjuster of childhood immunisation coverage.

  • Not published

    Daily smoking prevalence

    Not an adjuster of childhood immunisation coverage.

  • Not published

    Diabetes prevalence

    Not an adjuster of childhood immunisation coverage.

  • Context only

    Rurality (Geographic Classification for Health)

    A Ministry priority paper notes that about one in four Māori live rurally and that the most rural areas have lower coverage. That is not an official adjusted residual.

  • Not published

    GP enrolment

    Not in the figure-23 extract.

  • Not published

    GP visits

    Not in the figure-23 extract.

  • Not published

    Travel time to care

    Not in the figure-23 extract.

24-month coverage by ethnicity, quarter ended 31 December 2025

GroupCoverage
Asian peoples95.3%
European/Other85.2%
Pacific peoples82.6%
Māori67.8%
Total82.9%

Prioritised ethnicity. Target 95%.

Official source (opens in a new tab) · Data as of 1 Aug 2026

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CivicNZ · Are we getting healthier?

Better

Are children fully immunised by two years?

Health NZ’s Q4 2025/26 result is 83.7% fully immunised at 24 months, up from 82.0% in the same quarter a year earlier. Coverage remains below the 95% target, with a large Māori gap on the last ethnicity split (Q2 2025/26).

civicnz.org/health · Official sources · Not a causal claim

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