Main findings

The report is only available in Norwegian but here is a summary of the main findings: 

  1. The majority of children cared for outside the home before they are 18 months were in centre-based childcare. A larger proportion of children were in non-maternal care outside the home in 2009 relative to previous years. Although most children are cared for at home until they are 10-12 months old, with increasing age there is an increase in the number of children who are cared for outside of their home.

    Across year of data collection, and thus coverage of child-care centres, we found that 40 per cent of 18 month old children attended centre based childcare, while one in four children (26 per cent) are with a nanny/family-based care. In 2008 and 2009 we found that 59 per cent of the children attended centre-based childcare at 18 months, while 15 per cent were with a nanny/family-based care.

  2. The number of hours children are in child care outside the home at 18 months increases. In the interval between 2001 and 2009, most of the 18 month old children (63 per cent) were in childcare between 25 to 40 hours per week. The average number of hours children were cared for by others increased from 27 hours for children who were 18 months old between 2001 and 2003 to 31 hours for children who were 18 months old between 2007 and 2009.

  3. Approximately half of five year olds attend public childcare centres. 98 per cent of the five year olds participating in MoBa attend centre-based childcare. Approximately half of the children (52 per cent) attend public childcare centres while a slightly smaller proportion (45 per cent) attends privately run childcare centres.

  4. Choice of childcare is related to the length of mothers’ education. A smaller proportion of 18-month-old children were cared for at home in 2009 relative to 2003. The most substantial change across time was found among mothers without any completed higher education. In 2003, 40 per cent of mothers with low levels of education utilised non-maternal care outside home, whereas this number had increased to 63 per cent in 2009. Relative to mothers with higher education, a larger proportion of mothers with lower education levels care for their children at home until 18 months (50 per cent vs. 14 per cent). Child-minder / family-based childcare were found to be more often used by mothers who did not have higher education.

  5. Children of parents with a non-Norwegian mother tongue begin care outside the home later than children of two Norwegian speaking parents. At 18 months of age, 74 per cent of the children with two Norwegian speaking parents were cared for outside the home whereas 65 per cent of children from families where neither parent has Norwegian as their mother tongue were cared for outside the home.

  6. Girls who attend child care outside the home from 12 months are not negatively affected in language development or language related problems. The same holds true for girls being cared for in different types of child care. There are no advantages in the girls’ language development to being cared for at home in the first 18 months compared to being in childcare at an earlier age.