BRUSSELS, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, published a report on Tuesday saying that 39 percent of children aged 12 or below in the block received formal childcare services in 2016.
Childcare and support to children is one of the 20 key principles of the European Pilllar of Social Rights.
The report said 29 percent of children paid full or reduced price and 10 percent used cost free services in 2016.
According to the report, the situation of children in urban, suburban and rural areas receiving paid services was similar in 2016.
While as for the free services, there was a slight difference among cities, suburbs and rural areas, which were 11 percent, 10 percent and 6 percent respectively.
In EU, among the households that have at least one child aged 12 or under, 68 percent were satisfied with the usage of formal childcare services, said the report.
At the same time, the reasons that some households did not use these services were financial concerns, lack of places, not suitable opening hours, distance and dissatisfaction of services quality.
Within the bloc, the highest figure of children received such services in 2016 was seen in Denmark, which was almost 86 percent. It was followed by Sweden (70 percent), the UK (65 percent) and Germany (64 percent).
On the contrary, Latvia registered the lowest figure, which was just 1 percent. It was followed by Croatia (2 percent), Slovakia (3 percent), Estonia and Spain (both 4 percent).
With regards to the satisfaction with the access to formal childcare services, 94 percent of households in Denmark with at least one child aged 12 or less expressed that they were satisfactory, ranking the highest. Croatia ranked the second with 92 percent, Bulgaria and Sweden (both 89 percent) ranked the third.
