Objective  To examine vaccination coverage of 7-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine (PCV7) among children under 5 years old in Ningbo municipality and to provide evidences for developing strategies on effective coverage of pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine.

  Methods  Data on vaccination of PCV7 among all children born between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2016 were collected from Ningbo Municipal Immunization Information System and analyzed statistically.

  Results  Among the 2 027 202 children included in the study, 37 170 had received at least one dose of PCV7 before the age of five, with a coverage rate of 1.83%, and 30 308 had received full doses of PCV7, with a full-dose coverage rate of 1.50% for the < 5 years children. Of the children with PCV7 vaccination, 585 (1.57%), 19 790 (53.24%), 5 008 (13.47%), 7 236 (19.47%), and 4 551 (12.24%) had their inoculation at the ages of < 3, 3 – 6, 7 – 11, 12 – 23, and ≥ 24 months and 10 263 (27.61%), 6 635 (17.35%), and 20 272 (54.54%) had one dose, two doses, and three or more doses PCV7, respectively. There were significant variations in the vaccination coverage rate, the age at the first dose of vaccination, and vaccination doses of PCV7 among the children of different gender, residence region, household registry, and year of born (P < 0.01 for all); there were also a significant difference in the full-dose vaccination coverage rate of PCV7 among the children with various residence region, household registry, and year of born (all P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  The vaccination coverage of PCV7 is low among children of less than five years old in Ningbo municipality and the vaccination coverage rate, age at the first dose vaccination, and vaccination dose of PCV7 are different among the children with various social and demographic characteristics.