Saturday, March 03, 2012

Childcare use increases as parents work more

Statistics NZ have just released a survey about childcare use and working arrangements and the change between 1998 and 2009.  I have summarised some of the key findings from the tables available:

The total percentage of children in some sort of formal care rose from 51.9 to 53.9 percent BUT it dropped significantly for Pacific children. Public kindergarten, kohanga reo, play centres had drops in percentages attending whereas playgroup, childcare centres and organised home-based care rose.

Employed parents rose from 67.5 to 73.4 percent. The biggest rise was for Maori from 47.4 to 61.0 percent; Pacific rose 53.4 to 62.4; and European 73.5 to 73.9 percent.

Employed mothers rose from 54.1 to 60.9 percent; fathers from 84.5 to 88.6 percent

Parents who worked in the weekend rose from 22.6 to 28.0 percent; Pacific parents  had the biggest increase from 12.8 to 24.9 followed by Maori from 19.4 to 28.5 ; European rose from 24.0 to 27.5 percent. The percentage of sole parents working in the weekend rose from 16.2 to 28.1 percent.

Children aged under one had a fall in the percentage in any sort of formal care from 15 to 12.9 percent. All other ages registered an increase.

The percentage of children in 'no cost'  childcare rose from 13.5 to 29.5 percent.

The median weekly hours spent in care rose from 10 to 17 hours.

Percentage of children attending out-of-school care almost doubled from 3.8 to 7.5 percent. The are with the largest percent in out-of-school acre was Wellington; the spread across ethnicity almost even.

The maternal occupation that showed the largest increase was 'professional' which rose from 18.2 to 26 percent. The equivalent statistics for paternal occupation rose from 13.1 to 15.9 percent.






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