In the meeting, 75% of children under 3 are looked after mainly during the week by their parents, according to a national study carried out by the Research Department, studies, evaluation and statistics (Dares), extended for the first time to Reunion. This share is much higher than in France (56 %) ; 44% of young children are even looked after exclusively by their parents during the week, compared to 34% nationally.
When children are looked after primarily by their parents, this is most often when one of the parents does not work, either because he was already unemployed before the birth of his child, either because he stopped working to take care of it. Or, the employment rate of mothers of a child under 3 years old is much lower locally than in France (44% versus 62%). Grandparents are also more often in relay on the island. On the contrary, the use of formal childcare is less common. A significant proportion of parents providing primary care for their child would have preferred formal childcare if they had obtained it. Parental care would therefore be less frequent if the offer of formal childcare was wider : on the island, only 53% of children under 3 years old are looked after primarily by their parents (i.e. -22 points compared to the proportion actually observed). Reunion Island offered in 2022 a potential of 40,4 places for 100 children under 3 years old. This theoretical capacity is well below the national average (59,4 places for 100 children).
