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Fall in kindergarten fees
Fees in public kindergartens in Norway fell by 0.5 per cent in total from January 2015 to January 2016. The fall is mostly due to the new national minimum requirement for reduced parents’ fees, effective from 1 May 2015.
| January 2014 - January 2015 | January 2015 - January 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| Public and private kindergartens | ||
| Norway in total | 2.9 | .. |
| Public kindergartens | ||
| Norway in total | 2.7 | -0.5 |
| Oslo and Akershus | 2.6 | 2.5 |
| Hedmark and Oppland | 3.3 | -3.6 |
| South Eastern Norway | 1.6 | -1.4 |
| Agder and Rogaland | 3.4 | 2.8 |
| Western Norway | 2.0 | -0.2 |
| Trøndelag | 3.4 | -6.5 |
| Northern Norway | 3.2 | -3.7 |
| Private kindergartens | ||
| Norway in total | 3.2 | .. |
The new minimum requirement ensures that no household pays more than six per cent of their total income towards a kindergarten place. In addition, households with an income of less than NOK 405 000 receive 20 hours of free kindergarten time per week for 4 and 5 year-olds. Despite the rise in the maximum fee set by the Norwegian Parliament, from NOK 2 480 in January 2015 to NOK 2 655 in January 2016, the new minimum requirements were effective enough to pull the weighted average price down in many regions. This is especially true for areas that previously had high minimum rates and less use of income-differentiated payment systems.
Due to uncertainty in the data, figures for private kindergartens will not be published this year. Consequently, neither will the combined figure.
The statistics is now published as Household payments for kindergarten.