Pa. health officials release new data on measles vaccinations, showing slight drops in the Philly area

Pennsylvania officials on Monday released a new interactive tool where parents can look up vaccination rates at their children’s schools for the 2025-2026 school year.

The tool’s release comes after months of reporting from The Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette showed falling vaccination rates over the last several years in counties and individual schools around Pennsylvania.

“At a time when misinformation and conspiracy theories are sowing distrust in longstanding medical guidance, and reversing decades of science-backed progress, it’s more important than ever that [the state Department of Health] provide Pennsylvanians with as much accurate information as possible,” state officials said in a statement.

The tool was launched amid an ongoing measles outbreak in Pennsylvania. So far this year, the state has seen 176 measles cases in 14 counties, with 35 new cases reported in the last week. Nearly three dozen people have been hospitalized. None were fully vaccinated against the highly contagious virus, which can infect 9 in 10 unvaccinated people exposed to it.

In all of 2025, the state reported 16 measles cases.

The latest data on measles, mumps, and rubella vaccination coverage in the Philadelphia area show that vaccination rates for kindergarteners dropped slightly, by less than 1%, in Philadelphia and three of four suburban counties between the 2024 and 2025 school years.

On the county level, no Philadelphia-area counties reported vaccination rates at or above 95% for kindergarteners.

That’s the “herd immunity” threshold, the rate scientists say is necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.

Bucks County had the lowest MMR vaccination rate for kindergartners, at 93.7%, down from 94.3% the year before.

In Chester County, vaccination rates for kindergarteners held steady at 94.5% for both 2024 and 2025. Chester has confirmed 20 measles cases this year, and is the only Philadelphia-area county to report cases in the current outbreak, which began in April.

Some counties saw slight rises in vaccination rates for 7th or 12th graders, but Delaware County saw slight drops in vaccination rates across grade levels.

The newly released data also show more parents are using exemptions to opt out of vaccination. Pennsylvania has among the most permissive vaccination exemption provisions in the country; parents can opt not to vaccinate for religious, philosophical, or medical reasons.

Medical exemptions decreased by 7% in the Philadelphia region between 2024 and 2025, but religious exemptions jumped by 14% and philosophical exemptions increased by 19%.

Schools are required by state law to report their vaccination rates for kindergarten, 7th, and 12th grades; more than 90% of schools complied, state officials said.

According to the new dashboard, schools reported vaccination data from 5,943 grades. The dashboard obscures data from grades with enrollment below 20 students to protect privacy.

Statewide, more than half of reporting kindergartens had MMR vaccination rates above the herd immunity threshold, state officials said.

Seventh and 12th grade classes were more likely to report vaccination rates at or above 95%, with 74% of 7th-grade classes and 83% of 12th-grade classes reaching herd immunity, officials said.

Staff writer Sarah Gantz contributed to this story.

Read more on Pennsylvania's measles outbreak

• Inside Pa.’s measles outbreak: A family rides out the virus, doctors treat severely ill children

• Pennsylvania health officials address measles outbreak: ‘We will not slow down until this ... is over.’

• In Lancaster, measles cases are rising as providers try to combat low vaccination rates

• More than 200 Philly-area schools are vulnerable to a measles outbreak

• What are the measles vaccination rates in your district? See how your school compares.