More expensive day-care

Day-care care fees in day-care facilities have risen an average of two percent in the past six months, while the growth was 3.9 per cent from January last year to January this year. Day-care fees for private day-care places operating without municipal subsidies showed a somewhat stronger increase compared to municipal ones. The general increase in prices during the same period as measured by the consumer price index was 2.0 per cent.

Fees in municipal day-care centres rose 3.8 per cent from January last year to the same month this year while fees for private day-care facilities increased 4.1 per cent overall. The fees have risen the most in Eastern Norway, while the northern counties have had the slowest growth.

From August 1997 to January 1998 the price of a day-care place went up an average of two percent. Parents with children in municipal day-care centres saw fees rise 2.1 per cent, compared to an increase of 1.7 per cent in private day-care rates. Around half of the municipalities in the sample raised fees, while nearly a quarter of the private day-care facilities increased their fees. The municipal day-care facilities that raised their fees had an average increase of four per cent, while the private facilities that upped their fees had an increase of nearly six per cent.

New Statistics

Day-care fees, January 1998
The survey forms part of the consumer price index and is published twice yearly in the Weekly Bulletin of Statistics. The survey covers 109 municipalities. A report containing extracts and rankings is prepared for the Ministry of Children and Family Affairs on the basis of the survey and will be published later this year. For more information, contact: Randi Johannessen, tel. +47 21 09 47 30, e-mail: randi.johannessen@ssb.no.johannessen, or Kari-Anne Hovland, tel. +47 21 09 47 22, e-mail: kari-anne.hovland@ssb.no.hovland.

Weekly Bulletin issue no. 12, 1998