Statistical presentation

Data description

The purpose of the statistics is to establish a possibility for municipalities on resource allocation for childcare facilities. The inventory contains childcare arrangements, which are defined under The act on Law on day-care facilities (Dagtilbudslovens section 2 in Dagtilbud til børn indtil skolestart). In other words the childcare facilities are limited day care institutions from 0 years to school start (normally 5 years).

Children and staff are measured as full-time units (also called full-time equivalents). This means that a child or staff on full-time for a year is equal to one full-time unit, while a half-time employed staff counts as 0.5 full-time unit.

The ratio of children per adult is calculated on the basis of the agreement on the Finance Act in 2013, where it was decided "to develop a new method for calculating the ratios" and to prepare more accurate annual inventories for the average number of children per year. A working group was then set up consisting of the Ministry of Economic and Home Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the national association of municipalities and the Ministry of Children, Gender Equality, Integration and Social Affairs. The working group recommended a methodological framework to estimate the ratio between children and employees. Among other things they recommended that employees with pedagogical tasks should include employees with managerial assignments (managers). It is documented in the report The ratio of children per adults in daycare – A model to calculate the yearly ratio of children per adults in daycare (Normeringer i dagtilbud: Model for en årsopgørelse af normeringer i dagtilbud fra 2014)

Classification system

Children are grouped in daycare as: Family day care Day care facilities 0-2 years Day care facilities 3-5 years

Age integrated daycare (0-5 years old) are divided into day care for 0-2 years old and in kindergarten 3-5 years old for those children from 3 years old to starting school. This is also the case for institutions covering 0-18 years old.

Education categories: Educational assistant training Educator, BACH Educator, VBE (exclusive BACH) Educational Courses not specified Education, VBE Education, BACH, MASTER and Ph.d. Not leading to a vocational/professional qualification Other education Not specified educational level

Sector coverage

Childminders and institutions in childcare for children until school start.

Statistical concepts and definitions

Municipal-run home-based childminding: Daycare institutions run by the municipality that target children before they start school. Comprised of Nursery, Kindergarten and municipal-run home-based childminding

Nursery: A daycare institution where children are enrolled from 0 years until they start kindergarten.

Kindergarten: A daycare institution where children are enrolled from when they progress from the nursery until they start school.

Age-integrated institution: A daycare institution where children are enrolled from 0 years until they start school.

Employment period in a daycare institution: The period an employee is employed in a daycare institution, with a set number of hours per week. Changes in weekly hours, education or position will cause a new employment period.

Enrollment period in a daycare institution: The period a child is enrolled at a daycare institution, with a set number of hours per week. Changes in weekly hours will cause a new enrollment period.

Kindergarten progression age: The age children enrolled in age-integrated institutions are moved from nursery to kindergarten. The age is set by the municipality.

Municipal daycare institution: Daycare institution run by the municipality that target children before they start school. Comprised of Nursery, Kindergarten and municipal-run home-based childminding.

Independent daycare institutions: Daycare institution that is run by a private contractor that has signed an operating agreement with the municipal government. Independent daycare institutions are subject to municipal inspection and receive subsidies from the municipal government to cover the institution's expenses.

Statistical unit

Children and employees counted as fulltime units

Statistical population

Childcare for children from 0 years until start of school in public and independent institutions and public daycare

Reference area

Denmark.

Time coverage

These statistics cover the time period from 2015 and onwards.

Base period

Not relevant for these inventories.

Unit of measure

Number of children and staff is measured in full-time equivalents. The ratio between children and employees is measured in number of children per employee with pedagogical assignments.

Reference period

Reference period for children and staff is a calendar year.

Frequency of dissemination

Annual.

Legal acts and other agreements

Act on Statistics Denmark § 6 and § 8

Cost and burden

Filling a validation report can be a comprehensive task for a municipality, as it requires that several different departments cooperate in order to gather the relevant data. The extent of this is not measured.

Comment

Read more about the statistics on Statistics Denmark’s page for Childcare. Børnepasning.