Affordability of childcare

All households with at least one child aged up to 11 years old were asked how easy or difficult they found it to afford childcare.

More than half said that they found it easy (17%) or very easy (34%) to afford childcare, with a further quarter (25%) stating they found it neither easy nor difficult. However, 10% of households said that they found it difficult to afford childcare, and 6% found it very difficult (Table 37). The proportion of households that said they found it very easy or easy to afford childcare increased as area deprivation decreased, from 42% of those in the 20% most deprived areas to 55% of those in the 20% least deprived areas.