World Polio Day 2026 Is Saturday, Oct. 24: What It Marks and Where Polio Stands

World Polio Day is Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. It falls on Oct. 24 every year. Rotary International set it up to commemorate Jonas Salk, who led the team that developed the first polio vaccine. It is an awareness day, not a holiday, so offices, schools and banks keep their usual hours. The same date is United Nations Day, one of several observances listed in our Oct. 20 guide to what day it is.

A correction about Salk’s birthday

Some sites say Oct. 24 is Salk’s birthday. It is not. The Salk Institute gives his birth date as Oct. 28, 1914. World Polio Day commemorates his work and his team’s, and the date was chosen by Rotary.

Where polio stands

The World Health Organization (WHO) fact sheet, dated April 2, 2025, says wild poliovirus is endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Since 1988, cases have fallen by over 99%, from an estimated 350,000 cases in more than 125 endemic countries.

We have not confirmed case counts for 2025 or 2026, so we do not give any. The Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) publishes counts weekly at polioeradication.org. We also have not confirmed a 2026 Rotary theme or livestream time, or a GPEI target year for eradication.

The U.S. vaccine schedule

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists four routine doses of inactivated polio vaccine (IPV):

Dose	Age
1	2 months
2	4 months
3	6 to 18 months
4	4 to 6 years

Only IPV has been used in the United States since 2000, the CDC says.

Polio in the United States

The CDC’s surveillance manual gives 1979 as the year of the last indigenously transmitted wild poliovirus cases in the country, and 1993 for the last imported wild case. In July 2022, CDC and state health officials reported a case in an unvaccinated Rockland County, New York, resident. It was vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2, not wild poliovirus.

Check your record

Our free printable lists the four dose ages with tick boxes and three things to ask your clinician: for a copy of the vaccination record, how it compares with the schedule, and what to do if a dose is missing. Put Oct. 24 on the October 2026 printable calendar or a weekly planner.

Saturday is busy with other dates. See the Take Back Day guide for medicine drop-off hours, and Make A Difference Day for volunteer projects.