Fewer NJ Students Are Being Vaccinated, See Where Your County Stands

Vaccination rates among New Jersey students are dwindling, and a push for vaccine exemption for religious reasons may be why.

In New Jersey, parents can exempt their children from state and federally required immunizations on the basis of religious beliefs. These immunizations are for diseases including measles, Hepatitis B, and polio, to name a few.

Only four states in the U.S. offer no exemption policy: New York, California, Connecticut, and Maine. Other states offer caveats, like Oregon, which requires that parents submit a request signed by a health care provider only after viewing an educational module to receive a religious-based exemption.

New Jersey parents are not required to submit any notarization from a health care provider, nor proof of religion, to exempt their children from vaccines. However, exemptions based on “philosophical, moral, secular, or more general reasons are unacceptable,” according to state law.

According to state health data, roughly 25,000 New Jersey students skipped vaccinations last school year due to religious reasons, a 25 percent increase from the previous year.

See a county breakdown of how many New Jersey students were granted vaccine exemptions in the 2024-25 school year (from the NJ Department of Health):

• Ocean: 3,773 (10.5 percent)
• Cape May: 342 (9.6 percent)
• Monmouth: 3,000 (9.1 percent)
• Atlantic: 1,125 (8.7 percent)
• Sussex: 542 (8.2 percent)
• Hunterdon: 425 (7.1 percent)
• Gloucester: 1,022 (6.7 percent)
• Warren: 310 (6.3 percent)
• Morris: 1,447 (5.1 percent)
• Bergen: 2,372 (4.6 percent)
• Burlington: 1,195 (4.6 percent)
• Passaic: 1,327 (4.5 percent)
• Salem: 139 (4.5 percent)
• Somerset: 737 (4 percent)
• Somerset: 737 (4 percent)
• Cumberland: 339 (3.7 percent)
• Middlesex: 1,523 (3.6 percent)
• Camden: 953 (3.3 percent)
• Essex: 1,704 (3.3 percent)
• Union: 1,056 (3.2 percent)
• Union: 1,056 (3.2 percent)
• Hudson: 1,088 (3 percent)
• Mercer: 543 (2.6 percent)
• State total: 24,962 (5 percent)

(Percentages of children with religious exemptions may not sum to 100 percent due to rounding in this report, the New Jersey Department of Health says.)

State health officials say that the drop in vaccination rates puts both children and adults at risk of “serious and preventable infections.”

“Vaccines are, unequivocally, our most effective defense against vaccine-preventable illnesses,” said Acting NJ Health Commissioner Jeffery Brown. “For decades, the immunization schedule in the United States has played a significant role in turning diseases that once destroyed or claimed countless lives into preventable illnesses.”

The trend also coincides with a rise in measles cases and outbreaks, which are preventable through the MMR vaccine, across the country. In 2025, there were 11 cases of measles in New Jersey, up from seven cases in 2024. Once considered eradicated in the U.S., the potentially fatal respiratory disease has made a comeback.

Related, Measles At 33-Year High: See Risk Level In New Jersey

The increase in measles and decrease in vaccination rates also comes as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) made drastic changes to the federal vaccine schedule earlier this month.

The new vaccine schedule recommends children get vaccines for 11 diseases, compared with the 18 the CDC previously recommended. The changes were made effective on Jan. 5 and were met with opposition from New Jersey health officials.

Read More:

• Major Changes To Childhood Vaccine Schedule Announced By CDC: What To Know In NJ
• NJ Refuses Vaccine Schedule Change From The CDC