Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease in infants and young children. Enterovirus 71 (EV-A 71 ) is one of the main pathogens of HFMD, which could cause serious complications and even death. Therefore, it is an urgent need to protect against EV-A 71 infection. Development of EV-A 71 vaccine would be the most effective approach to prevent and control EV-A 71 infection. The EV-A 71 vaccines under development mainly include inactivated vaccines, attenuated live vaccines, virus-like particle vaccines, recombinant epitope vaccines, and synthetic peptide vaccines. This article summarizes the progress and development of the EV-A 71 vaccine.