As of March 1, 2026, the number of children under the age of three receiving daycare in Germany was 756,700, marking a drop of approximately 44,600, or 5.6%, compared to the previous year. This represents the third consecutive year that the enrollment rate for this age group has declined. Since its peak in 2023, the number of children under three has decreased collectively by 99,900, or 11.7%. This downward trend is primarily attributed to declining birth rates in recent years.
The childcare enrollment rate for three-year-olds was slightly lowered to 37.2% as of March 1, 2026, down from 37.8% in 2025.
More broadly, the total number of children aged zero to under 14 in daycare facilities nationwide reached 3,980,200 on that date. This figure saw a decrease of 79,200 (2.0%) compared to the previous year, marking the second consecutive year of reduction. Since 2025, the total number of enrolled children has seen its first drop in the entire series dating back to 2006, after previously experiencing continuous growth. Of these total children, 3,848,800 (96.6%) were in institutional daycare settings, while 131,400 (3.3%) were cared for through publicly subsidized services, typically provided by daily caregivers.
Significant regional disparities persist regarding the coverage of children under three. In Eastern German states (including Berlin), more than half of all children under three were in a daycare setting (53.5%). By contrast, the daycare coverage rate in Western states remained notably lower at 34.1%.
Regarding infrastructure, there were approximately 61,000 daycare facilities nationwide on March 1, 2026. This figure represented a reduction of about 80, or 0.1%, a decline that marks the first such decrease since 2006. While the number of facilities dropped, the number of personnel employed-whether as educational staff or in management and administration-increased by 3,800 (0.5%), bringing the total to 799,500. This growth rate was significantly slower than in previous years, which saw an average annual increase of about 3.7% over the past decade.
Concerning staffing demographics, although the proportion of men working in childcare remains relatively small, this percentage is steadily rising. On March 1, 2026, 68,700 men were employed in the educational, management, and administrative sectors of daycare centers, an increase of 1,300 or 2.0% from the previous year. Their representation among staff reached 8.6%.
In contrast to the overall institutional staff, the number of independent daily caregivers (Tagesmütter and -väter) decreased for the sixth consecutive year, dropping by 3,200 or 8.6% to 34,200. The percentage of men among these daily caregivers was 4.6%.
