

  • A. 20 percent
  • B. 50 percent
  • C. 80 percent

Correct answer

According to the World Health Organization’s Observatory data repository, in 2017 88% of the world’s 1-year-olds had been vaccinated against at least one disease.

Why the Wrong Answers are VERY Wrong

A) 20 percent

Incredibly, this figure would have been accurate as recently as 1980, so comfortably within living memory. However, a huge amount of work has been done to improve access to vaccinations around the world, and things have moved on a long, long way.

B) 50 percent

This would have been correct in 1985, by which time a serious amount of energy and resources had already been devoted to improving access to vaccinations. Thankfully the incredible work has continued over the last four decades, and the current figure of 88% continues to rise.

The ignorance we found

Just 13% of our respondents chose the right answer. That means out of 12,000 respondents, more than 10,400 got this question completely wrong.

And even when we look at responses by country, there is no good news. Sweden with the top performers this time with a measly (pardon the pun) 21% correct answers, while Japan, Germany, and France scored worst with a miserable 6%.


The remaining answers were split fairly evenly between the two wrong answers. 45% of respondents thought only half of 1-year-olds were vaccinated against at least one disease, while 43% of respondents thought the figure was just 20%!

Why do people pick the wrong answer?

Media and charity coverage of the poorest areas of the world has many people in the richest countries believing that:

  1. The world is divided into “the rich” and “the poor”; and,
  2. People in poor countries are living in extreme poverty, with no access to essentials like vaccines.

Of course, neither of these are true. In fact, most people live somewhere in between the extremes, and have access to most (if not all) the things they need to live happy, healthy lives.

At the same time, many people in the richest countries are suffering from what we call the “negativity instinct”. Simply put, they believe the world is getting worse over time. But again, this is completely inaccurate. In fact, almost everything—including access to vaccines and other basic medical care—is getting better over time.

Unfortunately, since most people in the richest countries only hear about the rest of the world via the media—and the media only covers negative stories—this inaccurate worldview is extremely prevalent.