# How many children use organised care — and for how many hours?

In Denmark and the Netherlands, similar shares of children under three use formal care: 67.2% and 66.5%. For 25 hours or more a week, the shares are 62.0% and 11.5%, a difference of 50.5 percentage points.

## What the percentages show

These are Eurostat estimates for 2025, as a share of all children in each age group. Formal care includes organised, intentional and planned education programmes provided by public organisations or recognised private bodies. The percentages describe reported use; they are not counts of children observed, available places, prices or reasons for a family's choice.

At any duration, the share is 67.2% in Denmark and 66.5% in the Netherlands. In Romania, 11.1% of children under three used formal care for at least one hour a week, compared with 40.6% for the EU-27 average. At 25 hours or more, the figures are 7.4% in Romania and 29.4% in the EU-27.

## Data and method

The selected comparison has the largest gap at the 25-hour threshold among the 34 country pairs whose any-duration participation shares differ by no more than 3 percentage points. This exploratory rule is not a statistical test. “Under 3” includes children younger than one; “ages 1–2” is a separate group. See [methods and sources](SOURCES.md) and the [CSV data](data/eurostat-data-2025.csv?v=5ba409dbccfa).

Source: Eurostat, ilc_caindform25b and ilc_caindform25, 2025; accessed 4 November 2026. Data modified and explanatory text translated by Marius Comper. Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on its behalf is responsible for any use that may be made of this information.