In 2018, about one in three children (32.9%) in Cyprus aged less than three years were cared for exclusively by their parents, Eurostat figures shows.
This is below the EU 27 average of 48.6%.
Eurostat notes that this share varied considerably across the EU Member States, from a low of 15.1% in Greece to a high of 81.6% in Slovakia.
When children are not cared for exclusively by their parents, they may receive formal childcare, or care that is provided by a professional child-minder, or be cared for by grandparents, other household members (excluding parents), other relatives, friends or neighbours.
In 2018, almost one-fifth (20.4%) of children in this age group received 30 hours or more of formal childcare per week in the EU.
Here Cyprus was close to the EU 27 average with 21.1%.
Among the EU Member States, Denmark with more than half (54.5%) of children aged less than three years receiving at least 30 hours of formal childcare per week had the highest share, followed by Portugal (48.8%), Slovenia (44.1%) and Luxembourg (42.7%)
At the other end of the scale, Slovakia had the lowest share of children aged less than three years that received at least 30 hours of formal childcare (1.2%), followed by Czechia (3.8%), Romania (5.9%), the Netherlands (6.3%) and Austria (7.1%).
For more information, see the Statistics Explained article Living conditions in Europe – childcare arrangements.
