Spain's double-jabbed population among world's largest and ahead of the UK, USA and Canada

SPAIN is leading the field in residents fully vaccinated against Covid-19, sitting at the top of the list of some of the world's most heavily-populated nations and beating the UK, USA and Canada.

As at the close of Friday – not taking into account any immunisation activity that has been taking place over the weekend – out of a total headcount of 47.1 million, Spain had finished vaccinating 25.4 million people.

The exact number, according to the ministry of health on Friday night, was only 1,022 short of the 25.4 million – 25,398,978 precisely, coming in at 54.3% of the country's residents.

The UK and Canada, jointly, are only slightly behind, at 54.1%, and are so far the only three large populations on earth with over half their population now completely immunised.

According to a graph by Our World In Data – which only gives details of countries that have reported breakdowns of first and second doses – the USA is the nearest to Spain, the UK and Canada, with 48.6% of its residents fully inoculated.

The European Union average is 45.7%, although two countries besides Spain – Germany (48.2%) and Italy (47.3%) - are showing above-average immunisation percentages.

France is just below the median figure, at 44.1%.

For the world as a whole, the EU's and UN's vaccine donation schemes are proving more necessary than ever, as only 13.6% of the planet is fully immunised; it is hoped this will improve once the wealthiest nations finish jabbing their home populations and are able to give away doses to poorer countries.

In Australia, only 12.5% of the population has been vaccinated in full, but its huge headcount and vast land-mass means it is likely to need much longer to do so; in area size, the entire continent of Europe – net of Russia – could fit inside Australia without touching the sides.

According to Spain's health ministry and reflected in the report by Our World In Data, nearly two-thirds of the country's residents – 64.3%, or 30.5 million – have had at least one dose of the Pfizer, AstraZeneca or Moderna, even where they are not fully immunised, meaning that within another three or four weeks, the 5.1 million with only one dose will join the 25.4 million who have finished their vaccine programme, so the very minimum percentage of Spain's population vaccinated in full by the third week in August will be, in fact, 64.3%.

But more doses are being delivered from the laboratories, and organisations such as the Red Cross have been administering shots to free up health service staff, which shows the rate of vaccination seen at present is unlikely to slow down and could well speed up as the summer progresses.

To date, Spain has received 60.1% of the vaccines it has ordered and paid for, or 56.18 million, of which 53.5 million have been administered so far, being 95.6% of the country's stock.

The vast majority, or 55.93 million, have been delivered to regional health authorities, of which more than two-thirds – 67.3%, or 37.62 million – are Pfizer, around a fifth, or 10.2 million, are AstraZeneca, 5.7 million or just under 10% are Moderna, and 2.4 million, or 4.3%, are the single-dose Janssen formula.

Regional health authorities are not all moving at the same speed, although this is partly skewed by population size and, whilst some regions are already starting on residents in their early 30s or even 20s, others are only just finishing off those in their 50s – a factor partly influenced by the overall population age and the size of different age-group communities.

So far, Andalucía has the most residents fully vaccinated, at exactly 4,475,153, and has used up the most of its doses – 9.6 million, or 98.6%.

Catalunya has administered 94.7% of its vaccines, or 8.6 million, and 4,163,252 of its residents have finished their jabs.

The Greater Madrid region has given 94.6% of its available doses, or 7.2 million, and a total of 3,373,266 of its residents have completed their vaccine programme.