20 January 2022

Fitness instructors, painters and actors ‘most likely to be unjabbed’

20 January 2022

Older people working as fitness instructors, painters, fork-lift truck drivers and actors are among those most likely to be completely unvaccinated against Covid-19, new analysis has suggested.

An estimated 16.6% of fitness instructors in England aged 40 to 64 have not received any vaccine, along with 16.2% of painters and decorators.

Other jobs with similarly high levels of non-vaccination among this age group include plasterers (14.8%), fork-lift truck drivers (14.4%) and people employed as actors, entertainers and presenters (14.2%).

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), suggest the sector classed as “elementary trades and related occupations” – such as packers, bottlers, industrial cleaning or farm and forestry workers – has the highest overall unvaccinated rate at 15.0%.

The next highest rate is for “skilled construction and building trades”, at 12.9%.

(PA Graphics) (PA Graphics)

All estimates are based on vaccinations delivered up to December 31 and cover only adults aged 40 to 64.

Among this age group, jobs where at least one in 10 people are likely to be unvaccinated include bus and coach drivers (14.1%), waiters and waitresses (13.6%), van drivers (12.9%), bar staff (11.8%) and sports players (10.9%).

By contrast, some of the lowest estimates are for police officers (3.8% unvaccinated), occupational therapists (4.1%), solicitors (4.5%) and school secretaries (5.0%).

The category of job with the lowest unvaccinated rate is “protective service occupations”, at 5.3%, which includes people working for the police, fire and prison services.

The ONS has also published updated estimates for vaccine take-up among the whole adult population in England up to December 31, based on factors such as deprivation and ethnicity.

People from black Caribbean and black African backgrounds are estimated to have the highest rates of non-vaccination, at 40.9% and 27.0% respectively.

The equivalent rate for people identifying as white British is 9.1%.

The proportion of adults in the most deprived areas of England who have not received a vaccination is estimated at 17.0%, compared with 7.3% for those in the least deprived areas.

Some 19.3% of adults identifying as Muslim are likely to have not been vaccinated, ahead of Jewish (12.9%), Christian (10.6%) and Hindu (8.3%).

The overall estimate for the proportion of people in England aged 18 and over who have not been vaccinated is 11.6%.

All figures are age-standardised rates, which takes into account the population size for the time period up to December 31.

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