Household payments for kindergarten, 15 August 2003, January

Since January 2003 the kindergarten fees have declined for all three levels of income and for the maximum and minimum fee, due to increased kindergarten subsidy as of August 2003. The government increased the kindergarten subsidy to the public and private kindergartens by about 19 and 33 per cent respectively. By August 2003 several of the public and private kindergartens have reduced their fees, while some are considering reducing the payment.

Large variations in the public kindergartens fees are found among the municipalities in the survey. The minimum fee for children aged 3 years or more with full-time care varies between municipalities from NOK 0 and NOK 3 360. The dispersion in the maximum fee is on the other hand somewhat smaller, and varies between NOK 2 190 and 4 635. The minimum and maximum fees are not measured against a specific level of household gross income. Households with an income of NOK 250 000 on a yearly basis face kindergarten fees between NOK 950 and 3 360. The kindergarten fees for households with an income of NOK 500 000 vary between NOK 2 185 and 3 850.

On a national level public kindergarten fees for households with a gross income of NOK 250 000 are on average NOK 2 382. Average payments for households with income levels of NOK 375 000 and 500 000 are around NOK 2 800. This is a decrease of about 8 per cent from January 2003 for all levels of income. From August 2002 to August 2003 kindergarten fees have been reduced by about 7 per cent.

On a regional level, four out of five regions reduced yearly kindergarten payments from August 2002 to August 2003. Western Norway was the only region that increased the fees.

Higher fees in private kindergartens than in public ones

The average payment in private kindergartens is NOK 3 166 on a national level. The fees have decreased by 3.4 per cent compared with August 2002. Household payments in private kindergartens are on average higher compared with fees in public kindergartens for all three levels of income. The fees differ with more than NOK 200 for households with an income of NOK 500 000 and about NOK 800 for households with income of NOK 250 000. These differences are mainly a result of a far more extensive use of payment systems where fees vary according to the level of income in public kindergartens compared with private ones.