Institutional childcare is increasingly seen not only as an indispensable childcare facility that enables mothers in particular to participate in the labor market, but also as an important first educational institution.  Children from socio-economically disadvantaged groups in particular benefit most from these positive effects. Paradoxically, however, many OECD countries - including Austria - show that children from disadvantaged groups in particular attend childcare facilities less frequently or for shorter periods of time. In Vienna, the range of institutional childcare for children aged 0 to 6 is very diverse. In addition to public facilities run by the City of Vienna itself, there are numerous private (non-profit) children's groups and kindergartens that are either run by churches or parents or by larger non-profit organizations. This range of childcare places has also expanded enormously in the last decade, although the expansion has mainly been carried out by private non-profit providers and the City of Vienna currently only operates a third of all places directly.

The project examines spatial access to childcare in Vienna in more detail. The measure used relates the number of available childcare places to the number of children under the age of six in a residential area on a small-scale basis. Despite the strong expansion of childcare facilities in Vienna, it can be seen that not all Viennese children benefit from this to the same extent. Rather, we see that for children living in the "best" 25 percent of all residential areas in Vienna, accessibility is between 9 percent and 20 percent (depending on the measurement method) higher than for children living in the "worst" 25 percent. Neighborhoods with a higher socio-economic status have benefited disproportionately from the general expansion of childcare provision.  The results also show that private non-profit kindergartens and crèches are mainly located in those residential areas with a higher socio-economic status. The unequal spatial accessibility to childcare can therefore be explained by the unequal spatial distribution of non-profit kindergartens, while public kindergartens have a balancing effect in this respect. Church-based and smaller non-profit kindergartens in particular are more likely to be located in residential areas with a higher socio-economic status, as they find the necessary resources and demand for special services (such as bilingual care or Montessori education) there.

Would you like to know more? Then follow these links:

awblog.at (2021)

AWBLOG.AT (2019)

Working paper

Publications from the project

Pennerstorfer, A., & Pennerstorfer, D. (2019). How small are small markets? Local market size for child care services. Regional Science and Urban Economics. 77(7), S. 340 – 355.

Pennerstorfer, A., & Pennerstorfer, D. (2021). Inequalities in spatial accessibility of childcare: The role of non-profit providers. Journal of Social Policy, 50(1), 122-147.

Pennerstorfer, A., & Neumayr, M. (2022). Institutionelle Kinderbetreuung in Wien: Kosten und räumliche Zugänglichkeit zu privaten und öffentlichen Einrichtungen. SWS-Rundschau, 62(3).

Pennerstorfer, A., Pennerstorfer, D., & Neumayr, M. (2024). Unequal access to childcare in cities: Is equal public funding sufficient? Urban Studies, 0(0), 1-18.