Statistical processing

Source data

Data for the statistics comes from several different sources, but can be divided into 3 types; data on registered children, data on employed staff, and data on day care facilities.

Both data on registered children and day care centers come from the municipal place guidance systems.

Information about staff comes from a number of sources, all of which relate to the payment of wages. Information on municipal staff is reported via the Municipalities and Regions Payroll Data Office, which also reports data on staff in the self-governing institutions and pool scheme institutions whose salaries are paid through the Municipalities and Regions Payroll Data Office. For the independent institutions and pool scheme institutions, the source is their salary supplier or the institutions themselves.

In order to be able to correct for maternity-related leave, data from Arbejdsmarkedets Tillægspension (ATP) is used on the payment of benefits linked to maternity leave.

In addition, Statistics Denmark's own registers of education are also used: Elevregisteret, Kvalifikationsregisteret as well as Register over højest fuldførte uddannelse.

Frequency of data collection

Data is collected yearly.

Data collection

Data on institutions and enrolled children is provided through a system-to-system solution from the municipalities' place guidance system.

Data on municipal staff is reported via the Municipalities and Regions Payroll Data Office, which is automated. For some independent institutions and pool scheme institutions, the staff are also paid by the municipalities, which means that staff data is included in the delivery from the Municipalities and Regions Payroll Data Office.

Self-owned institutions and pool scheme institutions that are not paid through the municipal system can use an external pay system that supplies data to Statistics Denmark. This leaves a smaller group of self-owned institutions and pool scheme institutions that do not have a payroll system provider. These institutions report manually through a form reporting solution on Statistics Denmark's website.

Data validation

Overall, two validation procedures are performed. 1) Error detection of data and 2) dispatch a validation report and engage in dialogue with municipalities.

Step 1: The first part of the data collection is done by reviewing the received data from the data providers. This is done by comparing the new data with previous years data. In addition to comparing data across years, comparisons are also made between annual data and monthly data to assess whether there is compliance between them.

Step 2: After data have been checked for errors, an account is made of the numbers of children and staff in each municipality. Subsequently, a validation report is prepared, which is then sent out to each municipality. The municipalities add their assessment of children and employees and the assessment from Statistic Denmark are compared to the assessment from each municipality.

Data compilation

Child and staff data are imported as annual extracts from pay systems in the municipalities. Then, an overall quality control and debugging is done in dialogue with the data providers. When data is received, employees are grouped in relevant staff groups and after completed education.

In the inventory of the ratio between children and employees students is weighted with 0,43 while pedagogical interns are weighted with 0.24. The reason for weighting employees is that students and interns also spend time on teaching and receiving guidance. The weighing of personnel follows the recommendation from the report: Normeringer i dagtilbud: Model for en årsopgørelse af normeringer i dagtilbud / The ratio of children per adults in daycare – A model to calculate the yearly ratio of children per adults in daycare published in 2014.

From the reporting year 2023, Statistics Denmark publishes ratios that account for the following three adjustments, as set out in Executive Order No. 1809 of 28 December 2023, which came into force on 1 January 2024: 1. Children who are moved to kindergarten before the age of three are ensured a ratio of at least one pedagogical staff member per three children until the first day of the month after they turn three years old. 2. Leaders are counted with a weight of 85 percent instead of 100 percent. 3. Government funding for social staffing is excluded from the calculation of the ratios.

Ad 1) Children moved to kindergarten before turning three are ensured a ratio of at least one pedagogical staff member per three children until the first day of the month after they turn three. This means that for a child who, during a calendar year, for example, first attends a nursery and then is moved to kindergarten at the age of 2 years and 10 months (i.e., before the first day of the month after the child turns three), and where the first day of the month after the child’s third birthday falls within the same calendar year, three full-time equivalent calculations must be made: (I) full-time calculation for the period in the nursery, (II) full-time calculation for the period from when the child is moved to kindergarten at 2 years and 10 months until the first day of the month after the child turns three, and (III) full-time calculation for the period in kindergarten after the first day of the month following the child’s third birthday. The full-time calculation for the period from when the child is moved to kindergarten at 2 years and 10 months until the first day of the month after the child turns three is weighted double in the ratio calculation for kindergarten, as the child must be ensured a staffing ratio of at least one pedagogical staff member per three children during this period, according to the legal requirement. However, children who are moved early to kindergarten are not weighted double in the children's data (BOERN2), which is published alongside the ratios (BOERN8).

Ad 2) Leaders are counted with a weight of 85 percent instead of 100 percent. The 85 percent weighting of leaders is included only in the ratio calculation (BOERN8) and not in the personnel data (BOERN1), which are published alongside the ratios by Statistics Denmark. Leaders are weighted at 85 percent for the first time in the reporting year 2023. During the period from 2015 to 2022, leaders were not weighted.

Ad 3) Government funding for social staffing is excluded from the staffing calculations: Pedagogical staff hired with government funding is calculated based on information about expected salary expenses for pedagogues, pedagogical assistants, and pedagogical aides, which is reported by the municipality to the Ministry of Children and Education in the annual status report. The reported expected salary and pension expenses for pedagogical staff due to government social funding are converted into full-time equivalents distributed by job category based on the average annual salary for a full-time employee in each of the relevant staff groups. The average annual salary nationwide is taken from the annual statistics of Kommunernes og Regionernes Løndatakontor (KRL). The annual salary is calculated as gross salary, including pension, any central or local allowances, special services, and holiday pay. The converted number of full-time equivalents for each of the three staff groups is summed and allocated between nurseries and kindergartens according to the distribution key for decentralized staff. This is then subtracted from the total number of staff units for both nurseries and kindergartens. Staff hired with government funding is subtracted only in the ratio calculation (BOERN8) but not in the personnel data (BOERN1), which are published alongside the ratios.

The ratios is calculated by dividing the number of full-time equivalent children in the municipality by the number of full-time equivalent personnel in the municipality. If no personnel has been reported for a specific daycare institution, the reported children from the same institution are also excluded from the norms calculation to avoid bias. Missing personnel data from daycare institutions occur only rarely.

Adjustment

No corrections have been made.