Coronavirus and vaccination rates in people aged 50 years and over by socio-demographic characteristic, England: 8 December 2020 to 12 December 2021

• Among adults aged 50 years and over, 74.7% had received three vaccinations, and of those who had received two vaccinations by 12 September 2021, 79.4% had continued on to receive a third vaccination; these proportions have been adjusted for age.

• The lowest third dose and booster vaccination coverage was among Pakistani (42.2%), Black Caribbean (44.4%) and Black African (45.4%) ethnic groups; among those who had received two vaccinations by 12 September 2021, there was particularly low third dose and booster vaccination coverage in the Pakistani (50.5%) and Bangladeshi (57.1%) ethnic groups.  

• The lowest third dose and booster vaccination coverage was among those identifying as Muslim (46.3%); similarly, among those who had received two vaccinations by 12 September 2021, those identifying as Muslim had the lowest coverage for third vaccinations (55.2%). 

• third dose and booster vaccination rates were higher among non-disabled (76.0%) people than those who are "limited a little" (72.0%) and "limited a lot" (66.2%) in their day-to-day activities. 

• third dose and booster vaccination rates were lower among those in less-advantaged socio-economic groups; people living in more-deprived areas, those who have never worked or are long-term unemployed, those with no qualifications and those who do not own their own home all had lower third dose and booster vaccination rates than their more-advantaged socio-economic class counterparts.

We linked vaccination data from the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Public Health Data Asset (PHDA) based on NHS number. The ONS PHDA is a unique linked dataset combining the 2011 Census, the General Practice Extraction Service (GPES) data for pandemic planning and research, and the Hospital Episode Statistics (HES).

The study population consisted of people aged 50 years and over, alive on 12 December 2021 who were resident in England, registered with a general practitioner (GP) in 2019, and enumerated at the 2011 Census. This analysis covers only people aged 50 years and over, as it can be assumed that a substantial proportion of this age group had been offered a third dose or booster vaccine during the time period presented.

These data only include third dose and booster vaccinations that were received from 16 September 2021 onward. Individuals who received a third dose vaccination or booster prior to this date were excluded from the analysis.

The age-standardised proportions presented are annualised directly age-standardised rates per 100 people, represented as a percentage. This is the number of people who have received a vaccination divided by the population for the relevant time period, standardised to the European Standard Population, multiplied by 100.

All individual-level socio-demographic characteristics (sex, ethnic group, religion, country of birth, English language proficiency, disability status, educational attainment, National Statistics Socio-economic Classification and household tenure) were derived from the 2011 Census. Place of residence (rural-urban classification) and area-based deprivation were derived based on data from the 2019 Patient Register where available, and from the 2011 Census where not available.

These data only contain information on people who were enumerated in the 2011 Census, and therefore exclude residents who did not take part in that census, and people who have immigrated since 2011. It also excludes those not registered with a GP in 2019.

The NIMS data covered the period 8 December 2020 to 12 December 2021. However, there may be an additional lag in data reporting such that it is possible we have not captured all coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccinations that were received by 12 December 2021.