Vaccine Mandates by Country 2026

How Childhood Vaccine Mandates Work Around the World

Vaccine rules aren’t the same everywhere. In many countries, childhood vaccinations are mandatory by law, meaning parents are legally required to vaccinate their children, often with penalties for noncompliance. In others, vaccines aren’t legally forced—but they’re required for school entry, which makes them effectively mandatory for most families.

There’s also a third group of countries where childhood vaccines are officially recommended rather than required. In these places, governments strongly encourage vaccination through public health systems, education, and access—but parents aren’t legally compelled to comply. Even so, vaccination rates in many of these countries remain high.

The data on this page focuses specifically on routine childhood vaccines—such as DPT (diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus), hepatitis B, and measles—not adult or COVID-era mandates. This distinction matters, because childhood immunization policies tend to be far more stable over time and are usually tied to long-standing public health laws rather than temporary emergency measures.

How Vaccine Mandates Work in Practice

When a country lists childhood vaccines as “mandatory,” it doesn’t usually mean children are forcibly vaccinated. Instead, mandates are enforced through systems parents already interact with—most commonly schools, childcare, and public services.

In many countries, proof of routine childhood vaccinations (such as measles, DPT, or hepatitis B) is required for school enrollment. Families who opt out may need to provide medical exemptions, follow alternative education paths, or face administrative barriers rather than fines or criminal penalties.

Other countries take a softer approach. Vaccines may be officially “recommended,” but access to public healthcare, schooling, or benefits strongly encourages high uptake. The result is often similar vaccination coverage, even without strict legal mandates.

What matters most for families isn’t the label—mandatory vs. recommended—but how the rule shows up in daily life: enrolling a child in school, traveling, accessing healthcare, or moving between countries. That’s why vaccination policy can feel very different on the ground, even when the data looks similar on paper.