Sixty Per Cent of Danish Under-Threes Are in Full-Time Childcare. In Slovakia, One Per Cent.
Silver Data Lab Research Desk · Statistical analysis · Published on 11 July 2026
- Data source
- Eurostat
- Reference period
- 2025
- Last updated
- 19 August 2026
Key estimates
- 26.1% of EU children under three attended formal childcare for 30 hours a week or more in 2025.
- Denmark records 60.1%, Slovenia 55.9% and Portugal 54.5%.
- Slovakia records 1.1%, Czechia 2.1% and Romania 6.7%.
- The Danish rate is 55 times the Slovak one.
- Eleven Member States are above 33% on full-time attendance alone; the EU's 2030 target of 45% counts attendance of any weekly duration.
The measure that sits under the gender employment gap
Formal childcare means care provided by an organised service — a nursery, a crèche, a registered childminder — rather than by relatives. This study uses full-time attendance, 30 hours a week or more, for children under three.
Across the EU in 2025, 26.1% of under-threes were in full-time formal care.
Where the provision exists
Denmark records 60.1%, Slovenia 55.9%, Portugal 54.5% and Luxembourg 44.9%.
Denmark's position reflects a system in which places are effectively guaranteed and heavily subsidised, and in which returning to full-time work before a child's first birthday is ordinary.
Slovenia in second place is the entry that resists an income explanation. It is not among the Union's wealthiest Member States and it provides full-time care to more than half its under-threes — more than the Netherlands, Germany or Austria, all of which are richer.
Portugal at 54.5% is in the same position.
Where it does not
Slovakia records 1.1%, Czechia 2.1% and Romania 6.7%.
In Slovakia and Czechia, full-time formal care for children under three is close to non-existent. Both countries operate long parental leave systems — up to three years — and provision for under-threes is built on the assumption that a parent will be at home.
That is a coherent policy design rather than an absence of one. It has consequences the design does not remove: the parent at home is overwhelmingly the mother, and a three-year absence from employment at the start of a career has effects that persist afterwards.
The Dutch anomaly
The Netherlands records 10.6%, which is startling for a wealthy Member State with the Union's highest female employment participation.
The explanation is part-time work. The Netherlands has the highest part-time employment rate in the Union at 38.6%, and a parent working three days a week needs three days of childcare, not five. Dutch children are in formal care in large numbers; comparatively few are in it for 30 hours or more.
This is the clearest demonstration that a full-time childcare measure is not a measure of childcare availability. It measures a particular combination of care and working patterns, and the Netherlands has a different combination rather than less care.
The relationship to employment
The Member States at the bottom of this ranking are largely those with the widest gender employment gaps. Czechia and Slovakia both record gaps well above the EU average of 9.6 points, and both provide almost no full-time care for under-threes.
The direction of that relationship is not established by this data, and it plausibly runs both ways: care is not provided because mothers are expected to be at home, and mothers stay at home because care is not provided. What the extraction establishes is that the two occur together.
Children under 3 in formal childcare, 30 hours or more, 2025
| Country | % of children under 3 | Gap to EU averagepercentage points, derived |
|---|---|---|
| Denmark | 60.1 | +34.0 |
| Slovenia | 55.9 | +29.8 |
| Portugal | 54.5 | +28.4 |
| European Unionaggregate | 26.1 | — |
| Romania | 6.7 | −19.4 |
| Czechia | 2.1 | −24.0 |
| Slovakia | 1.1 | −25.0 |
What these figures cannot tell you
- Full-time attendance only
- This measure counts children in formal care for 30 hours a week or more. A country where most children attend part-time records a low figure while providing widely available care — the Netherlands is the clearest case.
- Formal care only
- Care by grandparents, other relatives or unregistered arrangements is excluded. In Member States where family care is the norm, provision is understated by this measure.
- Long parental leave changes what is being measured
- Where paid leave runs to two or three years, low under-three attendance reflects a different policy design rather than an unmet need. Slovakia and Czechia operate such systems.
- Availability and cost are not separated
- The indicator records attendance, not whether places exist or what they cost. Low attendance can mean no places, unaffordable places, or a preference for care at home, and this data does not distinguish them.
Frequently asked questions
- How many young children in the EU are in childcare?
- 26.1% of children under three attended formal childcare for 30 hours a week or more in 2025. Counting any attendance, formal or part-time, the figure is considerably higher.
- Which EU country provides the most childcare?
- Denmark, where 60.1% of under-threes are in full-time formal care, followed by Slovenia at 55.9% and Portugal at 54.5%. Slovenia and Portugal are not among the Union's wealthiest Member States, which rules out a simple income explanation.
- Which EU country provides the least?
- Slovakia at 1.1% and Czechia at 2.1%. Both operate parental leave systems running up to three years, so provision for under-threes is built on the assumption that a parent will be at home.
- Why does the Netherlands score so low?
- Because this measure counts full-time attendance only. The Netherlands has the Union's highest part-time employment rate at 38.6%, and a parent working three days a week needs three days of childcare. Dutch children are in formal care in large numbers, but comparatively few for 30 hours or more.
Methodological note
Eurostat publishes children in formal childcare or education by age group and weekly duration from EU-SILC. This study uses children under three attending for 30 hours a week or more, as a percentage of all children in that age group.
Values are for 2025 and cover all 27 Member States.
The count of Member States above 33% is derived by Silver Data Lab. The Barcelona targets are EU policy objectives rather than Eurostat statistics, and they count attendance of any weekly duration — the 2022 Council Recommendation sets at least 45% of under-threes in formal care by 2030 — so target compliance cannot be read from the full-time series used here. The comparisons with the gender employment gap and part-time work draw on companion studies on this site.
Source data
The underlying series can be inspected and re-downloaded from the Eurostat data browser. The filters below are the ones applied.
Children in formal childcare or education by age group and duration
ilc_caindformal
- Filters applied:
- freq=A · age=Y_LT3 · duration=H_GE30 · unit=PC · time=2025
- Extracted:
- 2026-08-11
- Source last updated:
- 2026-07-08
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