How do we care for children under 3?

Between 2002 and 2022, school attendance for those under 1 year of age in Spain rose from 9.9% to 45.8%, and among those aged 2 from 21.7% to 65.3%.

According to the author of the study, there is a need to “achieve free and universal access to these services, and this would be the starting point for policies to accompany families during the most intense stages of care responsibilities".

In Spain, 39.6% of children under three years of age were in school in the 2018-2019 academic year, exceeding the recommendation of 33% established by the European Commission in 2002. Despite this figure, the 0 to 3 stage is neither free nor universal and the supply of formal and public care varies considerably across Spain, as the study points out.

Between 2002 and 2022, schooling for children under 1 year of age in Spain grew from 9.9% to 45.8%, and for 2 year olds from 21.7% to 65.3%. In contrast, the schooling rate for children under zero has increased slowly, from 2.5% in 2002 to 13.1% in 2022.

“Although the increase in schooling rates for the first cycle of childcare from 0 to 3 years is a positive indicator of the expansion of services, these figures hide a more complex and diverse reality,” says researcher Maida Juni, CED-UAB sociologist and author of the study.

Her findings coincide with previous research that highlights that the supply of early childhood education varies considerably between autonomous communities in Spain, as a result of weak regulation and a mixed public-private management model, in which the private sector has a strong presence.

One of the conclusions of the study is that child care is far from reaching the degree of homogeneity that is observed at older ages. For example, non-working mothers in most cases tend to be the almost exclusive caretakers of infants. In contrast, mothers without a partner tend to make more use of nursery schools, since the lack of a family network may make this option easier when balancing family and work.

Different types of care

The study classifies the different care alternatives available in the Fertility Survey according to the intensity of use (days per week), resulting in 4 broad categories: 

- Parental care: no care alternatives are used

- Formal care: more often resort to formal options such as nursery schools 0-3 and/or extracurricular activities

- Informal care: more often resort to informal options such as leaving children with grandparents, other family members and/or nanny

- Other care: different cases, but low intensity in use

For children under 1 year of age, care provided by grandparents or relatives is the predominant option among employed and partnered mothers, while parental care is more frequent among non-employed mothers. At age 2, nursery school becomes the most common alternative for many mothers, regardless of their employment or family situation.

Differences were also observed in the strategies employed according to the sociodemographic profiles of the mothers. Foreign mothers are the ones who resort to formal care the most (55%), followed by mothers without a partner (52%) and Spanish mothers with a job and with a partner (52%). In comparison, only 45% of mothers with partners but without a job use this resource, suggesting that the first three categories use nursery school as a key strategy for family-work balance.

In the case of informal care (e.g., grandparents), percentages are higher among mothers without a partner (23.4%) and for employed mothers with a partner (27.6%). In contrast, 15% of foreign mothers resort to informal care such as grandparents as the most frequent strategy.

The research concludes that “the administrations have a long way to go in guaranteeing a better offer in formal care, for example in expanding the coverage and accessibility of early childhood care services from 0 to 3 years of age, although not even this is not enough to comprehensively address the demands of care”. According to the author of the study, it would be necessary to “achieve free and universal access to these services, and this would be the starting point for policies to accompany families during the most intense stages of care responsibilities”.

ARTICLE: “La cura infantil a Espanya. Estratègies i determinants socioeconòmics”,
Author: Maida Juni. Perspectives Demogràfiques. Centre for Demographic Studies. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. October 2024.