Age, origin, political attitude: who are the 18 million unvaccinated?

The seven-day incidence continues to rise and faster, and the vaccination rate only increases slowly. According to the federal dashboard, 67.3 percent of citizens were fully vaccinated on Thursday. That is 56 million of the 83 million citizens, 27 million are therefore unvaccinated. 9.2 million of them are children under 12, for whom vaccination is not yet recommended. The rest – about 18 million – can be vaccinated but unwilling to do so. Some people with allergies or previous illnesses, such as cancer patients, are advised to consult their doctor individually before deciding for or against a vaccination.

According to a recent Forsa study, 64 percent of those who have not been vaccinated are currently refused vaccinations, 29 percent are insecure and hesitant, and only seven percent are still ready to be vaccinated. Some studies and surveys provide information on who the unvaccinated are.

12 million of the 18 to 59 year olds are still unvaccinated

Unvaccinated people tend to be younger. Of the twelve to 17 year olds, more than half (2.6 million) are not fully vaccinated, but almost 43 percent are now. This seems to be mainly due to the fact that the Standing Vaccination Commission did not recommend the vaccine for this age group until August. No vaccination is currently recommended for around 9.2 million children under 12.

The largest population group of 18 to 59 year olds is still around 22 percent unvaccinated, which corresponds to almost twelve million people. Around 85.5 percent of people over the age of 60 are now vaccinated.

There tend to be hardly any differences between the sexes. However, in its study of 27 European countries, the Max Planck Society found that in 24 of them an average of 14.5 percent of women are indecisive or rather hesitant – for men it was slightly less: 13 percent.

More unvaccinated people in East Germany – correlates with less trust in politics

There are proportionally more unvaccinated people in East Germany than in West Germany. The last four places in the vaccination statistics are occupied by eastern German federal states, in Saxony it is just 59.4 percent. For comparison: In Bremen it is now 81.5 percent.

East Germans are less willing to vaccinate and have less confidence in the safety of the vaccination. According to the latest Forsa study, this correlates with the fact that trust in the federal government is much lower in the east than in the west.

People with a migration background are more likely to be unvaccinated than people without. The authors of the Forsa study justify this with the fact that these groups of people are often less likely to be reached by the vaccination campaigns or that there is no information material that they can understand.

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Almost 30 percent of the surveyed unemployed in Europe reject vaccination

Researchers at the Max Plancks Institute for Social Law and Social Policy found that the economic situation across Europe has a visible impact. To do this, they used the Survey on Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), which collected data on vaccination readiness in the 50+ risk group in 27 European countries and Israel. The result: People in the lower quarter of the income distribution more often did not want to be vaccinated or were undecided, while the opposite was true for the higher income quarters.

The biggest difference was found between unemployed respondents, 28.5 percent of whom refused to have a vaccination or were undecided, and retired respondents, of whom only 11.5 percent did so. 15 percent of people with lower and 16 percent of people with middle school education are against a vaccination or are still undecided. In contrast, it was only nine percent of those surveyed with a high level of education.

Two thirds of the unvaccinated voted for right-wing parties

A survey by the Forsa Institute shows that 50 percent of the unvaccinated voters voted for the AfD in the federal election in September. The right-wing party’s share of the vote (overall result: 10.1 percent) among the unvaccinated would be almost five times as high as in the general population.

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15 percent of those questioned gave their cross to the so-called “lateral thinkers” party “Die Basis”, which was founded during the pandemic. The three largest parliamentary groups in the Bundestag, especially the Greens, are unpopular with the unvaccinated. The FDP, which repeatedly pleads for more freedoms in the pandemic, comes to 10 percent. For the analysis, Forsa interviewed 3,048 people between late September and mid-October.

Pre-existing illnesses and Covid contacts also play a role

According to the Max Planck Study, the proportion of vaccine skeptics or opponents of people without a diagnosed disease was, at almost 17 percent, significantly higher than in those with previous illnesses. Only around twelve percent of those who have an illness do not or tend not to be vaccinated. In addition: Anyone who knows a Covid patient was only ten percent skeptical about a vaccination. For those who didn’t know anyone who was sick, it was around 15 percent.

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