Vaccinations are some of the most valuable contributions to modern medicine. They have drastically reduced the prevalence of certain diseases, including polio, tetanus, measles and chicken pox. One disease, smallpox, has even been eradicated completely, with no natural cases since 1977.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that vaccines prevented at least 10 million deaths worldwide just between the years of 2010 and 2015. A similar study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found vaccines prevented 732,000 deaths in the U.S. between 1994 and 2013, as well as eliminated $1.38 trillion in total societal costs that those diseases would have caused. Vaccines are also very safe, and according to the WHO, “so few deaths can plausibly be attributed to vaccines that it is hard to assess the risk statistically.”
Some states are better than others when it comes to vaccinating. In order to see where people are most responsible about getting vaccines, WalletHub examined the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 18 key categories. Our data set ranges from share of vaccinated children to share of people without health insurance to presence of reported measles outbreaks. Read on for the full ranking, additional insight from a panel of experts and a detailed explanation of our methodology.
