Children enrolled in daycare back on the rise

For the first time since 2012 the number of children attending daycare in the Netherlands increased. According to Statistics Netherlands, 767 thousand children went to a daycare, childminder or after school care last year, an increase of 12 thousand compared to 2014. The most widely used form of childcare last year was after school care, closely followed by daycare. About 350 thousand children made use of those services. Childminders are less popular with 141 thousand children. Small children attend some form of childcare more often than older children. Two- and three-year-olds attended childcare on average 850 hours per year, or 17 hours a week. For five-year-olds the average attendance was 8 hours a week. According to Statistics Netherlands, this is because older children also spend time in school. The number of children attending daycare or after school care is still significantly lower than in 2011, when 835 thousand kids were registered in some form of childcare. Statistics Netherlands attributes the decline mainly to parents no longer being completely reimbursed for childcare costs by the government.