Majorities in Britain, Italy and Netherlands want the COVID-19 vaccine, but France and US have large minorities of vaccine hesitant citizens

Multi-country study of public attitudes towards Covid-19 vaccine rollout reveals French and American citizens have highest levels of vaccine hesitancy, with 4 in 10 in France saying they wouldn’t have it and 1 in 4 in USA.

Majorities in Netherlands and Britain likely to get vaccine, echoed by majority satisfaction with their government’s vaccination roll out

0700 GMT, 4 February 2021, London – Kantar Public has published a multi-country study of attitudes towards the current rollout of Covid-19 vaccines in Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, US and India.

The research reveals that:

• 37% of French citizens would definitely / probably not have a Covid vaccine if one were available to them[1], over twice the level in Great Britain (GB) (14%) and Italy (12%)
• 26% of people in the US and 23% of people in Germany say they definitely / probably would not have a vaccine
• 82% of people in India, 80% of people in Italy and 76% of people in both the Netherlands and GB say they would definitely/probably have a Covid vaccine
• 61% of citizens in Britain are very/ somewhat satisfied with their government’s organisation of the vaccination campaign, compared to 44% in Germany and only 31% in France
• 44% of people in India consider their government to be a reliable source of information on vaccines, compared to 30% respectively in the Netherlands and Britain. Just 11% of US citizens and 13% of French citizens say the same thing

Commenting on the research, Emmanuel Rivière, Director of International Polling and Political Advisory for Kantar Public, said:

“The scale of the communications challenge facing governments hoping to improve vaccine acceptance is revealed in this study. Vaccine hesitancy remains for large minorities in France, Germany and the US, where citizens can be twice or three times as likely to trust their family doctor as they are their government.

“As policymakers consider how best to improve vaccine take-up in the coming months, it will be important to note that health authorities are still considered the most authoritative sources of reliable information on Covid vaccines, some four times higher than social media.”

The study also found that:

• Men are more likely to have a vaccine – on average, 74% definitely/ probably would be vaccinated compared to 67% of women across all countries.
• The gap between men and women in stated likelihood to be vaccinated is widest in the US and Germany. In the US, 69% of men say they definitely/ probably would, compared to 55% of women. In Germany, 72% of men say they definitely/ probably would, compared to 63% of women
• Vaccine hesitancy is highest in younger age groups, with over half of French 25-34-year-olds (52%) and almost one third of Dutch 25–34-year-olds (32%) indicating that they would likely not be vaccinated
• On average, “health authorities in my country” (41%) and “my family doctor” (39%) are considered the most reliable sources of information on the Covid vaccine across all seven markets
• 26% of Indians cited social media as a reliable source of vaccine information, compared to only 5% in Germany and 4% in Italy and the Netherlands
• Safety concerns and lack of evidence about safety is cited as the most significant factor in vaccine hesitancy across all markets

-Ends-

Methodological information

A total of 7.133 interviews were conducted online among adults living in India, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Great Britain and the United States of America between 13 – 26 January 2021. Using Kantar’s LifePoints research panel, only accessible through the Kantar Profiles Network, all interviews were conducted as online self-completion and collected based on local census distributions.

About Kantar: Kantar is the world’s leading evidence-based insights and consulting company. We have a complete, unique and rounded understanding of how people think, feel and act; globally and locally in over 90 markets. By combining the deep expertise of our people, our data resources and benchmarks, our innovative analytics and technology, we help our clients understand people and inspire growth.

For more information please visit www.kantar.com/public

For media enquiries please contact Grace Lown public@kantar.com

[1] Kantar study of 7,133 people across 7 countries: India (1000), Italy (1001), Great Britain (1034), Netherlands (1000), Germany (1000), US (1098) and France (1000) between 13 - 26 January 2021