Poll: 79% of Americans Support Routine Childhood Vaccine Requirements

In the midst of a multi-state measles outbreak, a new poll by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation found that most U.S. adults (79%) say parents should be required to have children vaccinated against preventable diseases like measles, mumps, and rubella to attend school. This includes a majority of adults across party lines — 90% among Democrats and 68% among Republicans — as well as 66% of those who say they support the “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. It also includes 72% of all parents.

Among all U.S. adults, about one in five (21%) do not support routine childhood vaccine requirements.  

“Childhood vaccine requirements are less controversial than many people may think,” said de Beaumont president and CEO Brian C. Castrucci, DrPH. “This poll shows that they’re widely supported across political groups — and it’s heartening to see that so many Americans understand the importance of vaccination, which remains a fundamental pillar of public health and disease prevention.”  

The most common reason for opposing vaccine requirements is parental choice, not concern about safety.  

• Among the 21% of adults who say they don’t support vaccine requirements, most (79%) say a major reason is that they think it should be the parents’ choice whether to vaccinate their child. 
• Smaller majorities of those who don’t support requirements say they think government agencies who enforce vaccine requirements are influenced too much by politics and big companies (66%), worry that children might be required to get too many vaccines in the future (64%), and think vaccine requirements exist to make money for companies who develop vaccines (54%). 
• Concern about vaccine safety is a less common reason, cited as a major reason by 40% of those who do not support routine childhood vaccine requirements. 

Major reasons for supporting vaccine requirements include vaccine effectiveness, family responsibilities to keep schools healthy, and concern that diseases like measles could return without vaccine requirements.

• Among the 79% who support routine childhood vaccine requirements, the vast majority cite vaccine effectiveness (90%) and family responsibilities to keep schools safe (87%) as major reasons. 
• Those who support requirements often cite as major reasons that they think diseases like measles will come back if vaccines are no longer required (84%), vaccine requirements are important to protect children who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons (81%), and routine vaccines have been proven safe because they are well tested (80%) and have been around so long (76%).  
• Fewer of those who support requirements say trust in government agencies that approve routine childhood vaccines is a major reason for their support (49%).   

“At this point, public opposition to childhood vaccine policies is often more about parental rights than vaccine safety,” said survey lead Gillian SteelFisher, PhD, director of the Harvard Opinion Research Program and principal research scientist at Harvard Chan School. “As the country leans on vaccine policies to help address its largest measles outbreak in decades, public health leaders need to be prepared to bring empathy to conversations that go beyond just trying to convince people vaccines are safe.” 

The vast majority of parents and adults across political parties believe routine childhood vaccines are safe.  

The poll found that 91% of the public believes that vaccines for childhood preventable diseases are safe for most children. This includes 63% who believe vaccines are very safe and 28% who believe they are somewhat safe. Only 5% and 4% believe they are not very safe or not at all safe, respectively.  

Belief in vaccine safety is high among parents (88%) and across political affiliations: 

• Democrats: 97% 
• Republicans: 88% 
• Supporters of the MAGA movement: 84% 

That said, Republicans and MAGA supporters are less likely to believe vaccines are “very safe” (51% and 47%, respectively) than Democrats (80%). 

The poll was conducted by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the de Beaumont Foundation from March 10 to March 31, 2025, among a probability-based, nationally representative sample of 2,509 U.S. adults ages 18+. It was supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the de Beaumont Foundation. Findings and conclusions are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the de Beaumont Foundation, RWJF, or Harvard Chan School.