Public vaccination registration is being impacted by a rise in anonymous data reporting and a decline in vaccination rates in specific demographics, the Dutch Public Health Institute (RIVM) told Euractiv.
In its 2025 report on Dutch vaccination rates, the RIVM found that the vaccination rate in infants and toddlers as part of the national immunisation programme decreased compared to the previous year, while the vaccination rate against HPV has risen.
However, the institute says it has not been able to provide exact vaccination rates for several years.
Since 2022, people have been allowed to decline sharing information, including dates of birth, concerning themselves or their children. This means that the registered vaccination coverage is slightly lower than the actual coverage.
A spokesperson for the RIVM told Euractiv, “The government will evaluate and discuss the need to change this current opt-in approach to an opt-out approach. Clarity on this issue will follow around Q3-4 in 2025.”
They said that while the data may not be as accurate as that from pre-2022 levels, the anonymous portion of the data is as low as 2-3%.
The institute was still able to draw several insights from its data.
In its report, the RIVM noted that the strongest decrease in vaccination coverage was seen among Dutch children with a Moroccan or Turkish migration background, children who do not attend formal childcare, and those from large families with four or more children.
The RIVM’s spokesperson said there is a need to update the institute’s communication materials and improve how professionals are trained to address the issue. The institute is collaborating with healthcare workers, community representatives, and municipal communication experts to reach underserved groups more effectively.
Declining vaccination coverage
In the Netherlands, the national immunisation programme aims to protect children from 13 infectious diseases through several vaccines starting from birth.
The RIVM says that when vaccination coverage declines, outbreaks of these diseases happen more frequently.
The type of primary school children attend in the Netherlands also has an effect on their vaccination rate, the RIVM said. It found that the vaccination rate decreased sharply at Islamic schools and has been relatively low for a long time at orthodox Protestant and anthroposophical schools.
“At these schools, there is a greater chance that groups of children (clusters) will get measles,” the RIVM said in its report.
HPV vaccine coverage increases
For the increase in HPV vaccine coverage, the RIVM found that it was higher among boys than among girls. The difference in coverage between them was less significant compared to 2024.
“The HPV catch-up campaigns may have had a positive impact here,” the RIVM said, referring to the campaigns to invite young people aged 26 and under to get vaccinated against HPV.
The RIVM noted that a high number of cases of whooping cough were reported in 2024, along with cases of measles and mumps.
People who fell ill abroad were infecting others upon their return to the Netherlands. This was particularly evident with measles, due to the higher number of measles cases abroad.
The RIVM reported that it’s no longer possible to determine whether the Netherlands is reaching a national vaccination rate of 90% for all individual vaccinations in line with WHO objectives due to informed consent requirements leading to under-reporting. However, it said it is clear that the Netherlands is not meeting the WHO standard of 9% for the MMR vaccine.
The RIVM says there are several initiatives the Netherlands is pursuing to combat vaccine refusal and hesitancy, including hosting online pages with information as well as running dedicated phone lines.
“The ‘Twijfeltelefoon’ (doubts hotline) is an initiative by doctors from the Erasmus University Hospital of Rotterdam. The students who answer questions have access to our training materials. They are called 30 times a day,” the RIVM’s spokesperson said. “Remarkably, most of the questions are about the planning of appointments.”
[Edited by Vasiliki Angouridi, Brian Maguire]