Children’s participation in pre-primary education across the EU rose to 95.0% in 2024, up from 91.2% in 2014.
The data covers children aged three to the compulsory starting age for primary school, and refers to pre-primary education — early years schooling before primary education, Eurostat disclosed on Monday.
France recorded the highest participation rate at 100%, followed by Belgium at 98.1%, and Lithuania and Hungary at 97.9% each.
Romania had the lowest rate at 76.5%, with Slovakia at 81.8% and Czechia at 86.4%.
Most pre-primary teachers are women
Women made up 95.1% of teachers in pre-primary education across the EU in 2024, Eurostat said.
The highest shares of female teachers were in Romania (99.7%), Slovakia (99.6%) and Hungary (99.5%), while the lowest — though still high — were in the Netherlands (87.8%), France (91.6%) and Denmark (92.5%).
