European Child Guarantee: Early childhood education and care

The indicator from the EU statistics on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) for children in formal childcare or education by age group is available as a percentage of the population of each age group. 

Participation in ECEC is understood as children being cared for through formal arrangements other than by the family. More specifically, the data encompass the following services provided in public or private structures: education at preschool, education at compulsory school, childcare at centre-based services outside school hours (before/after), and childcare at daycare centres. Care provided by childminders without any structure between the carer and the parents (direct arrangements) is not included.

This indicator includes data for two age groups relevant for the Barcelona targets, that is children under age three years and from age three years to minimum compulsory school age. The analysis presented here covers these two age groups, looking at the participation of all children in each group, as well as the participation of children at risk of poverty or social exclusion (AROPE status) within each of the two age groups. 

In 2022, 35.9% of children under age three in the EU27 participated in ECEC one hour or over on a weekly basis. 

The EU-SILC data by AROPE status (ilc_caindform25 accessed in January 2024) do not calculate percentages using the proportions within each particular AROPE/non-AROPE group of the population, and instead calculate the AROPE population as a percentage of the total population aged under three. Therefore, it cannot be used to look at differences in participation rates by AROPE status.  

In the case of children aged from three years to minimum compulsory school age in the EU, 89.2% participated in ECEC services for at least one hour per week. 

Analysis over time of shares of children in formal ECEC

The participation of children aged under three in ECEC for at least one hour a week on average has increased since 2015 overall.

In terms of disparities between countries, the standard deviation has increased over time. The change over time can thus be described as upward divergence, since there is an overall improvement but increased disparities between countries. 

Regarding children aged from three years to minimum compulsory school age, the EU27 average rate of participation in ECEC increased between 2015 and 2022 overall.

Looking at disparities between countries, the standard deviation for AROPE rates has decreased over time. This change can be seen as upward convergence, since there is an overall improvement and decreased disparities between countries.

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The Eurostat indicator on expenditure on ECEC measures public expenditure on education per pupil/student based on full-time equivalent by education level and programme orientation. This includes, among other levels, early childhood education, which is level zero in the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).

Using GDP per capita as the unit of measurement, the expenditure on ECEC in the EU27 amounted to 19.7% of GDP per capita in 2018 (the latest year for which EU27 data are available). 

Analysis over time of shares of public expenditure on ECEC

The lack of available data (particularly when it comes to EU27 averages), differences in the definitions used, and the amount of data labelled as provisional make it difficult to analyse trends over time. There was an increase in national averages in public expenditure of ECEC in 14 out of 20 countries for which information was available in 2015 and 2019 (the latest year with available data at the national level). During that period, there was also an increase in the standard deviation, meaning that disparities between Member States have increased over time. Therefore, the change over time can be seen as upward divergence.

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The affordability of ECEC is measured by looking at net childcare costs. This indicator comes from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Tax and Benefit Model (TaxBEN). It is calculated as the difference between the disposable income of a family with two children aged two and three that buys centre-based childcare (for both of them) and an otherwise identical family that does not use childcare services at all, for example because the family has access to unpaid informal care.  

As such, the OECD net childcare costs (NCC) indicator measures the overall net reduction in family disposable income resulting from the use of centre-based care. This measure is more complete than others focusing only on the gross childcare fee paid by parents, as it takes into account other policies that my affect the overall childcare costs, such as local/national benefits for families using childcare services, tax concessions related to childcare expenditures, changes in other benefit entitlements (such as housing benefits) for families using childcare services, and so on. The NCC indicator assumes the use of full-time childcare (40 hours per week) in a public childcare centre.  

In countries with no or very limited availability of public childcare, the calculations use the average cost of private childcare centres. The cost is calculated as a percentage of average wages for a low-income household earning the minimum wage. More specifically, it looks at the net out-of-pocket cost of full-time care in a typical childcare centre for a two-child family, where both parents are in full-time employment and the children are aged two and three. 

More specifically, it looks at the net out-of-pocket cost of full-time care in a typical childcare centre for a two-child family, where both parents are in full-time employment and the children are aged two and three. The cost is calculated as a percentage of average wages for a low-income household earning the minimum wage. 

Data are available for 21 of the 27 Member States as the remaining six do not have a statutory minimum wage and therefore percentages on the basis of the minimum wage cannot be calculated. The unweighted EU average childcare costs for those 21 countries was 7% in 2022. The countries with the highest percentages that year were Czechia (27%), Ireland (18%) and Slovakia (12%). Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Malta all reported 0%. 

Analysis over time of shares of net out-of-pocket cost of childcare

The unweighted EU average for the 21 Member States for which data are available decreased between 2015 and 2022. The standard deviation also decreased over that period of time. The change over time can thus be described as upward convergence, since there was an improvement of the situation over time (a decrease in the out-of-pocket cost), together with a decrease in the disparities between countries.

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