Vienna has nursery places for one third of children

Vienna is still suffering from a shortage of kindergarten places for years after the law was changed to make sure they were free to any children aged up to 6 years old. That is despite the fact that the city has invested heavily in increasing the number of places available.

Yet despite those most experts say there are still not enough places available.

Officially there are 52,626 kindergarten places available in Vienna and 19,193 cribs for very young children. On average each year there an extra 1,500 additional places created. That means that the city is the only European capital has reached the so-called “Barcelona objective” of having places for a third of all the children aged under six. That would mean 33% but in Vienna there are places for 36% of the children.

One of the reasons that experts are not happy is that many young women in particular who go into the business did not stay long because the pay is not sufficient when related to the fact that they need to study for five years in order to be qualified.

Priority is given to families where both parents are in work but even then there is sometimes a waiting list. In addition anybody living outside the city that travels into Vienna to work and uses a local kindergarten has to pay for it. The typical price is around €300. It is only free for people in Vienna and even then there is also still a charge – each family has to pay 60 years a month for the midday meal of the child.