Childcare in Denmark

If your child is aged between 26 weeks and 2 years, you can apply to the municipality for a nursery place for the child. Day care is a collective term for the childcare possibilities for children between 0 years of age and school start, but it can be established in a number of different ways.If your child is aged between 3 and 6 years, you can apply for a kindergarten place as soon as you have moved to Denmark. However, the municipality cannot allocate a place until the child has a social security number.

If you wish to apply for a place for your child in a nursery or kindergarten, you should contact the placement service in the municipality where you live. If no vacant place is immediately available, the child will be placed on a waiting list.

Nurseries and kindergartens in Denmark are subject to user payment. Prices and discounts are stated by the municipality’s placement service.

Prices may vary, but parents pay no more than 25% of the costs of the nursery or kindergarten care. However, municipalities that offer a place guarantee may charge a special, increased parent payment.

You can also apply for child-minding for your child. A child minder is a person who looks after your child in their own home. Child minding differs from day care in that it involves a small number of children and is carried out in a domestic environment. A child minder may look after a maximum of five children at a time, and most of the children in child-minding are aged between 6 months and 3 years. Child minding is an alternative to a nursery. The child minder is employed, paid and approved by the municipality.

Some municipalities provide subsidies for parents to care for their own children from age 24 weeks until school start. The child cannot simultaneously receive subsidies for other care offers, and the parent receiving the subsidy must not at the same time have earned income or be in receipt of transfer income. In addition, it is a condition that the parent has been living in the country for seven of the last eight years.

The local municipality decides whether it will subsidise parents for care of their own children. Contact your municipality for further information.

Parents can receive a subsidy to hire a private child minder if the municipality approves the care agreement. Contact your municipality for further information.