What % US has never had a covid vaccine hot?

1. What the major official trackers report right now

Government and large aggregator dashboards have generally reported that a substantial majority of Americans have received at least one COVID vaccine dose: USAFacts reported about 81% of the population had received at least one dose (implying roughly 19% had none) and listed 70% fully vaccinated in its snapshot ^[3], while CDC summaries historically placed the share of adults with at least one dose near 85% in late 2021 (implying ~15% unvaccinated) and other CDC‑derived coverage estimates have been published in ongoing “vaccination trends” updates ^{[4] [5]}. A published surveillance review put the proportion of adults with no dose at about 10% as of July 1, 2022 ^[1].

2. Why different studies give different “never had a shot” percentages

Differences trace to three core factors: whether the denominator is adults only or the total population (children change the share), the date of measurement during a rapidly changing campaign, and data collection method — administrative counts vs. survey self‑reports. Administrative counts (state reports compiled by CDC or aggregators) can undercount doses given across jurisdictional lines or to non‑resident populations, while surveys can over‑ or under‑estimate depending on who responds; researchers have explicitly pointed out that CDC estimates and independent survey projects diverge, with the COVID States Project arguing CDC’s 8% no‑dose figure contrasts with their 25% estimate because of such measurement differences ^{[2] [5]}.

3. How researchers and public‑health papers frame the unvaccinated share

Peer‑reviewed articles and public‑health analyses typically focus on adults and on subcategories (never vaccinated, not fully vaccinated, not boosted). One literature review noted ~10% of adults had received no dose by mid‑2022 and found 23% were not fully vaccinated and nearly half of fully vaccinated adults had not received boosters — underscoring that “never had a shot” is only one of several policy‑relevant metrics ^[1]. Earlier Census Household Pulse data flagged about 15% of adults unvaccinated in late 2021 and used that to explore reasons ranging from hesitancy to access barriers ^[4].

4. Who remains unvaccinated and why it matters

Studies show the unvaccinated are not a monolith: hesitancy explains a large share of non‑vaccination in many analyses, but access and demographic patterns also matter; one analysis estimated vaccine hesitancy accounted for roughly three‑quarters of nonvaccination overall, with variation by age, race, education and income ^[6]. That heterogeneity matters for public‑health planning because the raw “percent never vaccinated” hides different outreach needs — persuasion, convenience, or structural access — and because being “not up to date” (missing boosters) is a separate vulnerability many reports emphasize ^{[7] [1]}.

5. Bottom line and limits of available reporting

Based on the assembled sources, the best defensible short answer is that the share of U.S. residents who have never received any COVID‑19 vaccine dose has been reported in the single digits to low‑teens by federal trackers for adults (roughly 8–15% at various times) and around 10% in some peer‑reviewed estimates as of mid‑2022, while some independent surveys have produced higher estimates (up to ~25%) attributable to methodological differences ^{[4] [1] [2] [3]}. Reporting limitations include differing dates, adult vs. total population denominators, and administrative versus survey data; the sources provided do not allow a single, definitive current percentage without specifying which dataset and cutoff date is meant ^[5].