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A new national survey by Pew Research Center, conducted from Aug. 23 to 29 among 10,348 U.S. adults, prior to President Joe Biden’s announcement of COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employers, finds that 73% of those ages 18 and older say they’ve received at least one dose of a vaccine for COVID-19, with the vast majority of this group saying they have received all the shots they need to be fully vaccinated. About a quarter of adults (26%) say they have not received a vaccine.
Vaccination rates vary significantly across demographic groups, with smaller majorities of younger adults, those with lower family incomes and those living in rural areas saying they’ve received a COVID-19 vaccine. No more than six-in-ten of those without health insurance and White evangelical Protestants say they’ve been vaccinated (57% each). Notably, Black adults are now about as likely as White adults to say they’ve received a vaccine. Earlier in the outbreak, Black adults were less likely than White adults to say they planned to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Partisan affiliation remains one of the widest differences in vaccination status: 86% of Democrats and independents who lean toward the Democratic Party have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, compared with 60% of Republicans and Republican leaners.
Americans express a range of sometimes cross-pressured sentiments toward vaccines. Overall, 73% say the statement “vaccines are the best way to protect Americans from COVID-19” describes their views very or somewhat well; 60% say their views are described at least somewhat well by the statement “people who choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine are hurting the country.”
At the same time, 51% of the public says that the phrase “there’s too much pressure on Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine” describes their own views very or somewhat well. And 61% say the same about the statement “we don’t really know yet if there are serious health risks from COVID-19 vaccines.”
Vaccinated adults and those who have not received a vaccine differ widely in their views of vaccines – as well as other elements of the broader coronavirus outbreak. For instance, 77% of vaccinated adults say the statement “people who choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine are hurting the country” describes them at least somewhat well. By contrast, 88% of those who have not received a vaccine say that “there’s too much pressure on Americans to get a COVID-19 vaccine” describes their own views very or somewhat well.
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