The U.S. Adult Vaccine Schedule by Age
CDC posts one table by age and a second by medical condition. How to read both, what shared clinical decision-making means, and what to bring along.
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CDC publishes a vaccine schedule for adults by age, and a second table that sorts the same vaccines by medical condition and other indication. Checked on September 3, 2026, both carried the header line “Addendum updated July 2, 2025.” After 18 the list gets shorter. It does not get empty, and it does not stop moving.
Most adults meet that list sideways — a pharmacy flu shot, a Tdap given during someone’s pregnancy, a tetanus booster after a bad afternoon with a nail. Nobody mails a grown-up a well-visit reminder, so the chart is something you open on purpose.
What vaccines are recommended for adults?
Five rows carry most of the questions on CDC’s table for ages 19 years or older: influenza, tetanus-containing boosters, zoster, pneumococcal, and RSV. Each row is a single line of text on the grid.
| Row on the CDC table | What the row says |
|---|---|
| Influenza | 1 dose annually; for ages 50–64 the table marks HD-IIV3, RIV3 or aIIV3 as preferred |
| Tdap and Td | 1 dose Tdap, then a Td or Tdap booster every 10 years |
| Zoster (RZV) | 2 doses for adults 50 years and older |
| Pneumococcal | routine for adults 50 years and older |
| RSV | separate rows for ages 50–74, for 75 and older, and for pregnancy |
Other rows sit under them: hepatitis B, HPV in certain age bands, MMR and varicella for people without evidence of immunity, meningococcal for particular indications. Travel vaccines are not on this grid at all — CDC keeps destination advice on its Travelers’ Health pages, and a yellow fever or typhoid question belongs there rather than here.
How is the schedule for adults organized?
Age first, indication second, notes third. The age columns on the by-age page are 19–26 years, 27–49 years, 50–64 years, and 65 years and older. A 27-year-old and a 66-year-old are not reading the same column, and neither is reading the childhood grid.
The companion table by medical condition and other indication re-sorts the identical vaccines under columns for pregnancy, immunocompromising conditions other than HIV, HIV infection by CD4 count, asplenia and complement deficiency, heart or lung disease, kidney failure or dialysis, chronic liver disease, diabetes, and health care personnel. That is the table behind most adult searches, because “asthma, pregnancy, immune problems” is what people actually type. Naming a condition out loud in an appointment is what moves you from the first table to the second.
Read it in four steps:
- Find your age column.
- Notice which rows are routine for that column and which are marked for an added risk factor or another indication.
- Open the notes only for what you have actually been offered — flu, Tdap, zoster, pneumococcal — instead of memorizing every row.
- Take the page, plus your own history, to a clinician. The grid is not a self-checkout.
CDC posts both tables, along with easy-to-read versions for the public, from its immunization schedules hub. Open the live page. A printout from a waiting room in 2019 is a poster, not a schedule.
What does shared clinical decision-making mean on the grid?
It is CDC language for “this one is a conversation, not an automatic yes.” The legend on the by-age page separates four states: recommended for adults who meet the age requirement, lack documentation of vaccination or lack evidence of immunity; recommended for adults with an additional risk factor or another indication; recommended based on shared clinical decision-making; and no guidance or not applicable.
Those four colors do different work. The first is the closest thing to a default. The second is why a 30-year-old with a lung condition may be offered something a healthy 30-year-old is not. The third means a clinician weighs your situation with you and documents what you decide together — including a decision not to give a dose today. The fourth means the row is silent for that column, which is not the same as “no.”
Which rows come up most for healthy adults?
Influenza returns every season. CDC’s flu vaccination page, updated September 1, 2026, states that everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine every season, with rare exceptions, and the product may differ by age.
Tetanus is the long-interval one: one Tdap, then a Td or Tdap booster every 10 years. Pregnancy has its own Tdap timing, decided in prenatal care, not at a pharmacy counter.
Zoster and pneumococcal both start at 50 on the current tables, and both are places where memorized numbers go stale. Zostavax, the older live zoster vaccine, was discontinued in the United States on November 18, 2020, so a 2015 line on a record is history for a clinician rather than proof of anything; our own piece on the two-dose shingles series covers that. CDC’s pneumococcal page, updated February 25, 2026, puts routine vaccination at 50 years and older and adds adults 19 through 49 with certain risk conditions — and there is no single “pneumonia shot,” which is why matching the pneumococcal product is a separate article on this site.
What history should you bring to a checkup?
Your own, in whatever shape it survived. CDC’s page on keeping adult vaccine records up to date, updated June 13, 2024, states plainly that there is no national organization that maintains vaccination records. It points adults to documents parents saved, school and college health services, previous employers, their own providers, and state health departments, some of which run Immunization Information Systems that include adult doses.
Bring three piles:
- Dates you can prove — printouts, photos of a card, pharmacy receipts.
- Dates you only remember, labeled as memories.
- Conditions and medicines you would mention anyway.
If a dose cannot be found, the same CDC page notes that it is safe to repeat vaccines, and that a blood test can check immunity in some cases. Those are clinical calls. A blank line on a card is not permission for a website to fill it in.
Vaxnext is where that pile can live between visits: one phone — iPhone or Android — a folder per family member, no account. Be clear about the split, though — the app computes due and overdue dates only for the U.S. childhood and adolescent schedule plus the yearly flu vaccine. Doses for anyone 19 and older are typed in as custom vaccines and the app makes no recommendation about them. The tables above belong to CDC and to a clinician. Whether the result adds up to being up to date is a separate question, and it has its own answer.
This article does not cover travel vaccines, pregnancy timing, or catch-up intervals for an adult who never had a childhood series. Each of those is decided on a different page and in an appointment.
FAQ
Do adults age out of vaccines?
No. CDC maintains a table for ages 19 years or older that continues past 65, with columns for 19–26, 27–49, 50–64 and 65 and older. Influenza is annual, a Td or Tdap booster is on a 10-year interval, and zoster, pneumococcal and RSV rows begin at 50 or later. The list gets shorter with age, not shorter with time.
Where is the CDC table by medical condition?
CDC publishes it beside the by-age table, under the heading “by Medical Condition and Other Indication,” reachable from the immunization schedules hub linked above. It uses columns for pregnancy, immunocompromising conditions, HIV infection, asplenia, heart or lung disease, kidney failure, chronic liver disease, diabetes and health care personnel.
Does an undocumented childhood dose count?
That is a clinician’s call, not a form-filling one. CDC’s record-keeping page for adults notes that records may be found through parents, schools, former employers or a state registry, that repeating a vaccine is safe when nothing turns up, and that blood tests can check immunity for some diseases. Bring the memory and let it be weighed.
Not medical advice. This article is general information based on public U.S. CDC pages. It does not replace a clinician. Schedules and country entry rules change — confirm the current official page and your own situation before you act.