The Nordic child care regime — History, development and challenges

In the Nordic countries child care is universal, of high quality and highly subsidised by the Government. Close to all children in pre-school age attend child care. This paper presents the historical background for the development of child care in the Nordic countries, it presents some basic figures on child care take and take up of leave schemes as well as figures on child poverty in the Nordic countries. The paper also contains a discussion of the challenges facing the Nordic Child Care Regime in relation to the poor results of many Nordic countries in the OECD-PISA program.