This study updates information on Parisian families and enables one to assess the services available to them, in terms of childcare and support for parents.
The study “Families, childcare and parenting in Paris” carried out in 2021 in conjunction with the City of Paris (Department of Families and Early childhood) is presented in two main parts.
The first part offers an updated analysis of the socio-demographic characteristics of Parisian families and how they have developed over the past 10 years. Paris was home to around 252,000 families with offspring aged under 25 in 2018, i.e. 22% of Parisian households. The level of actively working parents is higher in Paris than in other large French cities and continues to rise. While the structure and cost of the Parisian housing stock is a deterrent to the presence of families, the social housing stock plays a major role in favour of them remaining. In 2017, 29% of Parisian families were tenants of social housing.
The updating of the profile of Parisian families is accompanied by an inventory of the offer of facilities and services available to them. In terms of collective childcare available services in Paris have continued to increase over recent years. The number of places rose by more than 40,800 places in 2021, i.e. almost 63% of children under three years old. By contrast, the use of individual childcare, whether it be at a qualified child-minder’s or a home-based parental assistant is decreasing.
In terms of support schemes for parents, the study’s partners recorded a total of 515 such schemes in the whole of Paris. The recent development of shared activities in day-nurseries and primary and middle school playgrounds, in the context of “Quarter-of-an-hour City - Ville du quart-d’heure -”, has made it possible to diversify the offer proposed to parents and reinforced the territorial network.
The second part of the study gives details of the expectations and needs of parents collected via a large scale questionnaire and interview survey. A total of nearly 3,500 families responded to the survey which was put online in June 2021, and 24 parents participated in an interview.
In the case of early childhood, 85% of the respondents indicated that they had had access to the type of childcare initially desired. This rate reached 98% among families using collective childcare schemes. A large majority of families indicated their satisfaction with their childcare organisation, whether or not it corresponded to their first choice (89% of respondents).
Generally speaking, families consider themselves to be well informed about available services, although the level of information varies according to the theme and changes with the age of children. The level of information is higher about childcare and services linked to health and school life (66%). Families indicated that they were more familiar with and used PMI mother and child welfare centres and game libraries more than other services proposed. Regardless of the age of their children, parents said they were particularly concerned about schooling and communication with their children.
When asked about the long-term impact of the health crisis, families expressed new expectations, most often induced by working from home. More than one in five families with a young child (21%) indicated that their childcare needs had changed. This involves an even higher proportion of families with at least one child at school (30%). Finally, more than a third of respondents (35%) also indicated that they felt the need to be accompanied in their role as parents in the context of the current crisis.
