Special Eurobarometer 488: Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination

Vaccination is one of the most successful public health measures to date. Not only do vaccines prevent diseases and save lives, they also reduce healthcare costs. The European Commission has conducted a Special Eurobarometer presenting Europeans’ attitudes towards vaccination. While the results are positive in finding that 85% of EU citizens believe vaccination is an effective way to prevent infectious diseases, and 79% consult and trust a healthcare professional to get information about vaccinations, there are also some worrying findings: 48% Europeans believe – incorrectly – that vaccines can often produce severe side effects, and 38% think vaccines can cause the diseases against which they protect. More key figures can be found in the full Eurobarometer report.

The results by volumes are distributed as follows:

• Volume A: Countries
• Volume AA: Groups of countries
• Volume A' (AP): Trends
• Volume AA' (AAP): Trends of groups of countries
• Volume B: EU/socio-demographics
• Volume B' (BP) : Trends of EU/ socio-demographics
• Volume C: Country/socio-demographics

Researchers may also contact GESIS - Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences: https://www.gesis.org/eurobarometer