After an increase in the past two years, there are now fewer children under three in day care for the first time. The regional differences in Germany are still large.
For the first time in three years, the number of children under the age of three in childcare has fallen slightly. As of March 1, 2024, around 848,200 children were cared for in a daycare center or other facility, which was one percent less than a year earlier, according to the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden. This is the first decline since 2021.
As the number of children under three years of age fell in general, the childcare rate nevertheless rose slightly from 36.4 percent to 37.4 percent. The proportion of children receiving childcare is also higher in the eastern German states, at 55.2 percent. In western Germany, the rate was significantly lower than in the east, at 33.9 percent.
Lowest rate in Bremen
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (60.3 percent), Saxony-Anhalt (59.4 percent) and Brandenburg (59.1 percent) had the highest rates nationwide. In the west, Hamburg (49.9 percent), Schleswig-Holstein (40.0 percent) and Lower Saxony (36.2 percent) had the highest proportion of children in care. The lowest proportion of children in care nationwide was in Bremen (30.0 percent), Baden-Württemberg (32.0 percent) and North Rhine-Westphalia (32.2 percent).
Increase in staff in daycare centers
Nationwide, 60,662 child day care facilities were counted, one percent more than in the previous year. There was an increase in the number of teaching staff, management and administrative staff of 3.2 percent to 778,200 employees. The number of childminders, however, fell by 3.8 percent to 39,664. The proportion of men in all areas was 8.1 percent.
Source: Stern
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