In 2023, 94.6% of children aged between 3 and the compulsory starting age for primary education in the EU countries were in pre-primary education, compared with 93.3% in 2022.
This means that progress is made for the EU to reach 1 of its 7 goals under the European Education Area strategic framework that at least 96% of children between 3 years old and the starting age for compulsory primary education should participate in early childhood education and care by 2023.
Among the EU countries, France reported a 100% participation rate, followed by Belgium (98.0%) and Spain (97.7%). By contrast, Romania (75.7%), Slovakia (80.8%) and Czechia (85.3%) recorded the lowest shares.
Source dataset: educ_uoe_enra21
Data show that almost all the teachers in pre-primary education in the EU in 2023 were female, accounting for 95.3% of the total.
Romania (99.7%), Slovakia (99.6%) and Hungary (99.5%) had the highest shares of female teachers in pre-primary education. At the other range of the scale, but still with high levels, the Netherlands (87.9%), France (91.5%) and Denmark (92.7%) reported the lowest.
Source dataset: educ_uoe_perd03
Source: Eurostat, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/product?code=ddn-20250611-2
