As of: 08/31/2021 11:17 a.m.
Around 1.6 million children under the age of six were cared for all day before the start of the corona pandemic in Germany – significantly more than ten years earlier. The differences between the federal states, however, are great.
All-day care for children under six has increased significantly in recent years. In 2020 – before the start of the corona pandemic – according to the Federal Statistical Office, every third child under the age of six was cared for all day in a day care center or in publicly funded day care. The rate was 34 percent, which is significantly higher than in 2010, when just over one in five children (22 percent) attended all-day care.
According to the information, a total of almost 1.6 million children under six years of age were cared for more than seven hours a day. While toddlers under three years of age are less likely to receive full-time care (20 percent), the rate for three to six-year-olds was 48 percent. There has been an increase in both age groups over the past ten years. In 2010, twelve percent of those under the age of three and 32 percent of those aged three to under six received full-time care.
South and Lower Saxony are lagging behind
The statisticians explained that there were clear differences between the eastern and western states of Germany. Thuringia has the highest all-day care rate for children under six years of age in Germany at 73 percent, while the rate in Saxony-Anhalt is 66 percent and in Saxony 65 percent. In contrast, the values were lowest in Baden-Württemberg (18 percent), Bavaria (24 percent) and Lower Saxony (26 percent).
According to the Federal Statistical Office, Thuringia is also at the top of all-day care for children under three with a rate of 52 percent, followed by Saxony-Anhalt (49 percent) and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (46 percent). In Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, only eleven percent of those under the age of three received full-time care in 2020. The Federal Office pointed out that the costs for day care differ in the individual federal states and municipalities.
The figures for the past year reflect the status as of March 1, 2020, before daycare centers and other care facilities had to be closed due to Corona. More recent data are expected to be available at the end of September, announced the Federal Office in Wiesbaden.
Dispute over full day for elementary school students
The federal and state governments are currently arguing about the further expansion of all-day care. According to federal plans, every child who starts school from summer 2026 should be entitled to a full-time place in the first four school years. In order to be able to guarantee this legal claim, the federal states have to create hundreds of thousands of new places. The Federal Council refused to approve the law at the end of June and called the mediation committee. The federal states are demanding significantly more help for investment and long-term operating costs from the federal government.
On Friday, an informal working group is to sound out a possible compromise, it said on Monday from coalition circles. If this succeeds, the mediation committee of the Bundestag and Bundesrat could meet next Monday.