America Speaks on Vaccines
Over the past year, vaccines have frequently been in the news as an issue that is top-of-mind for many Americans. Once again, we asked about vaccines in our annual public opinion survey we commissioned to better understand the American public’s views on this subject, and the findings, outlined below, are compelling.
The majority of Americans are confident in the safety of vaccines.
When asked about vaccines as a whole, 78% of Americans said they were “somewhat confident” or “very confident” in the safety of vaccines used today, which is a slight increase, 4%, from our 2025 survey. Breaking that down by political party, 91% of Democrats, 75% of Republicans, and 65% of Independents felt confident in the safety of vaccines.
Most Americans say childhood vaccines save millions of lives.
Despite much discourse around the topic of childhood vaccines, most Americans (84%) believe that childhood vaccines save millions of lives. This was high among all party affiliations: 92% of Democrats, 82% of Republicans, and 75% of Independents said they “strongly agree” or “somewhat agree” with the statement “childhood vaccines save millions of lives.”
The vast majority of Americans agree that childhood vaccines protect communities from outbreaks of diseases.
Similarly, 86% of Americans agree that childhood vaccines protect communities from outbreaks of disease, and the party breakdowns are nearly identical to the previous statement. 92% of Democrats agree, with many having moved from “somewhat agree” to “strongly agree” as their answer. 84% of Republicans agree, and 78% of Independents agree. Independents had the highest frequency of answering “not sure” in response to this statement.
Less than half of Americans worry that not all the childhood vaccines are necessary.
Overall, less than half (45%) of Americans worry that not all the childhood vaccines are necessary. The number of respondents answering, “strongly disagree” to the statement, “I worry that not all the childhood vaccines are necessary,” increased compared to the previous year for both Democrats and Independents. Republicans’ responses remained roughly the same as the 2025 results.
These are just a few insights into the vaccine-focused questions from our latest national survey. Explore more findings on our website here.
For more than 30 years, Research!America has commissioned annual public opinion surveys to better understand Americans’ views on medical, health, and scientific research and other pressing issues related to public health, research, and innovation.