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Data

Smallpox: when was it eliminated in each country?

About this data

Source
Fenner et al. (1988) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
September 11, 2017
Date range
0–0

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

Fenner et al. – Smallpox and its Eradication

The only data not taken from the maps but from the text are the data for Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand: For Canada the authors reported that "endemic smallpox was eliminated by 1944", for the USA only that it was eliminated "the latter half of the 1940s" (I chose 1948 for the visualization). Dates for the last outbreaks of smallpox in Australia (1917) and New Zealand (1914) are reported in the text – in both countries smallpox has always been rare.

The dates for Madagascar and Namibia are not exactly known – the authors only report that smallpox was eradicated in Madagascar before 1918 and for Namibia before 1955 (so I chose these years for eradication).

Countries are shown in their current borders – successor countries of Yugoslavia, the USSR and the Sudan are assigned the eradication date of these states: 1925 for Yugoslavia, 1936 for the USSR, and 1972 for the Sudan.

Retrieved on
September 11, 2017
Retrieved from
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106.pdf
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
F. Fenner, D. A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Jezek, I. D. Ladnyi (1988) – Smallpox and its Eradication. World Health Organization (WHO) 1988.

The only data not taken from the maps but from the text are the data for Canada, USA, Australia and New Zealand: For Canada the authors reported that "endemic smallpox was eliminated by 1944", for the USA only that it was eliminated "the latter half of the 1940s" (I chose 1948 for the visualization). Dates for the last outbreaks of smallpox in Australia (1917) and New Zealand (1914) are reported in the text – in both countries smallpox has always been rare.

The dates for Madagascar and Namibia are not exactly known – the authors only report that smallpox was eradicated in Madagascar before 1918 and for Namibia before 1955 (so I chose these years for eradication).

Countries are shown in their current borders – successor countries of Yugoslavia, the USSR and the Sudan are assigned the eradication date of these states: 1925 for Yugoslavia, 1936 for the USSR, and 1972 for the Sudan.

Retrieved on
September 11, 2017
Retrieved from
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/smallpox/9241561106.pdf
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
F. Fenner, D. A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Jezek, I. D. Ladnyi (1988) – Smallpox and its Eradication. World Health Organization (WHO) 1988.

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To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Smallpox: when was it eliminated in each country?”. Our World in Data (2026). Data adapted from Fenner et al.. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/decade-in-which-smallpox-ceased-to-be-endemic-by-country.html [online resource] (archived on May 11, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

Fenner et al. (1988) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

Fenner et al. (1988) – processed by Our World in Data. “Smallpox: when was it eliminated in each country?” [dataset]. Fenner et al., “Smallpox and its Eradication” [original data]. Retrieved May 11, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260511-092124/grapher/decade-in-which-smallpox-ceased-to-be-endemic-by-country.html (archived on May 11, 2026).

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