Bienenstock Research

    What applies in childcare, counted and looked up.

    Staffing rules from 16 state laws, the official childcare statistics and how attendance is recorded at the door. As downloadable tables and as analysis to read. Sourced and dated, free to use under CC BY-SA 4.0.

    Analysis

    Longer pieces with sources, newest first. Most are in German.

    1. 2026-09-30Approaches to software in childcare: areas, data, duties per countrySix approaches, twelve areas and their data, modular or all-in-one, and which records each country requires.
    2. 2026-09-30· GermanKita software comparison 2026: 13 vendors, six areasPositioning in the German market, with a citable dataset. No overall winner.
    3. 2026-09-28Staff-child ratios, international: what 1:N really means per countrySeven countries on five common age bands, with a note on what each number measures.
    4. 2026-09-28Kita parent fees and fee exemption, by German stateWhere childcare is fee-free, partial or not at all, with the legal section and primary source per value.
    5. 2026-09-28Kita law reforms: what changes in childcare law, and whenReforms in 16 states and at federal level with status, date in force and primary source. Subscribe as a calendar.
    6. 2026-09-02· GermanKeeping a Kita operating licence in forcePlaces, ratios and annual occupancy under § 47 SGB VIII.
    7. 2026-08-20· GermanQR or RFID at the centre doorParents scan, the child wears a chip, or staff enter it later. With the five documented door products of 2026.
    8. 2026-08-19· GermanChildcare statistics 2026: numbers, sources, and where they disagreeWhat Destatis, the family ministry and the state laws each measure.
    9. 2026-06-03· GermanBerlin's new KitaFöG 2026: the under-3 ratioWhat changed on 24 Dec 2025 and takes full effect in August 2026.

    Datasets

    Machine-readable, with the legal basis for each value where one exists.

    Updated
    Updated 2026-08-19
    Licence
    dl-de/by-2-0 (Destatis) · CC BY-SA 4.0

    Childcare statistics 2026

    Destatis, reference date 1 March 2025: children, centres, staff, rates per state

    kita-statistik-2026.jsonOpen page →
    Updated
    Updated 2026-09-28
    Licence
    CC BY-SA 4.0

    Staff-child ratios, international

    DE, AT, CH, UK, US, NL, FR: harmonized staff-child ratios and max group across five age bands, with source and mapping note per cell

    ratio-crosswalk.jsonratio-crosswalk.csvOpen page →

    Countries compared

    Interactive tables. The UK and the US live on our English-language site beenest.co.

    How we work

    We read the primary sources: state laws, regulations, implementing rules and the Destatis tables. Every value in the staffing rules carries the section it comes from.

    Where sources disagree or measure different things, we say so instead of smoothing a number.

    This is not legal advice. The law in force is what counts.

    Found a mistake? Write to info@bienenstock-kita.de.

    How to cite

    How to cite a dataset or an analysis:

    Bienenstock Research (2026): Staffing rules, Germany. https://bienenstock-kita.de/DE/bundeslaender-vergleich. Updated 2026-08-18. CC BY-SA 4.0.