Children aged less than 3 years in formal childcare

In 2025, Ireland's children aged less than 3 years in formal childcare increased by 10.7% compared to 2024, reaching 27.0.

Ireland accounts for 66.7% of the EU-27 total of 40.5.

Ireland ranks 19th out of 27 EU member states with reported data — in the bottom half of the distribution.

Over the past five years, the indicator has grown by 51.7% (from 17.8 in 2020).

Source: Eurostat dataset tepsr_sp210, accessed via the eupublicdata pipeline.