'Childcare puzzle': Which countries in Europe have the highest and lowest childcare costs?

Sarah Ronan once had to resign from a job because she couldn't afford childcare. 

Far from being a rare example, it's a story that's all-too-familiar in the UK, which has some of the highest childcare costs in Europe, and where women are actively discouraged from going back into the workplace after starting a family, because of the expenses involved. 

“Like many parents, I had to piece together that childcare puzzle to make it all work. My son was with one set of grandparents two days a week and with another set one day a week. He was in nursery for only two days a week. And then, the situation with the grandparents changed due to ill health,” says Ronan, project lead for the Early Education and Childcare Coalition at the UK Women’s Budget Group.

“I was faced with having to put him into daycare five days a week. The cost of that was £1200 (€1356) a month. After tax, I was earning about £1700 (€1921) a month,” she tells Euronews. 

The latest survey carried out by the charity Pregnant The Screwed finds that childcare in the UK can consume up to a whopping 75% of parents' incomes.

In 2022 the UK became the most expensive country for childcare across the developed world, prompting thousands of people to protest in cities across the country in what became known as the “March of the Mummies” last October.

“So far the government has not done anything about the cost of inflation in the UK. It looks as though childcare costs are going to rise by at least another 10% in April," says Joeli Brearley, the founder of Pregnant Then Screwed. 

"On average, it costs £14,000 a year for a childcare place and we're looking at that going up by £1,000 a year,” she tells Euronews.

One in every three parents who participated in the survey revealed