Accounts for private kindergartens

An approved educational establishment organized for children below the age of compulsory education, according to the Kindergarten Act.

Ordinary kindergarten

A kindergarten in approved premises and which has an outdoor area specially designed for kindergarten activities.

Family kindergarten/family day-care center

A kindergarten that organizes its activities in a private home and based on the premise that a kindergarten teacher is employed as an educational supervisor. The kindergarten teacher should either be attached to a normal kindergarten or to the municipal administration. The regulation on family day-care centers states that at least half of the children in a family day-care institution group must be other than the home's own children.

Mixed kindergarten

A kindergarten that are a mix of an ordinary kindergarten and a family day-care center.

Public kindergartens

Kindergartens owned by the municipality, county municipality or state.

Private kindergartens

Kindergartens owned by private individuals, organisations or companies and where the municipality provides a subsidy or private kindergartens without a municipal subsidy.

Non-municipal kindergartens

Kindergartens that are not owned by the municipality, i.e. state, county and private kindergartens.

Part-time attendance

Number of children with an agreed length of stay in the category 0-8 hours, 9-16 hours, 17-24 hours or 25-32 hours per week.

Full-time attendance

Number of children with an agreed length of stay of 41 hours or more per week.

Operating income

Includes parental payments, sale/hiring out place, sale of equipment, state subsidy, municipal subsidy, other municipal subsidy, and other incomes.

Operating expences

Include salary, social charges, equipment, maintenance and other operation expenses.

Operating profit

Operating income less operating expences.

Net profit

Operating profit adjusted with financial items and tax expenses.

Type of owner

A description of the owner of the kindergarten and is predefined on the questionnaire.

Positive net profit

Can be allocated in two different ways:

1. Retained as a part of the equity or to strengthen the kindergarten’s liquidity or to finance acquisitions for the kindergarten later.
2. Pay the positive net profit as dividend payments to kindergarten owner or transfer as an intra-group contribution.

Dividend

Payment of the positive net profit to the kindergarten's owner.

Group contribution

Paid group contribution is the positive net profit transmission to the group company. Group companies are defined as companies in a relationship with each other as described in Companies Act § 1-3.

Classification of county

Name: Accounts for private kindergartens
Topic: Education

Division for Education and Culture Statistics

Counties.

Frequency: Annual

Timeliness: The statistics are usually published in November the following year.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The account statistics for private kindergartens presents detailed information about the activities on the basis of financial information. The statistics provides important and necessary knowledge about the subsidies transferred to kindergartens from the government and municipalities, and information about how these resources are used.

The statistics were first published in 1992. In 2003 (accounting year 2002) a new questionnaire was used. The present questionnaire allows Statistics Norway to publish more detailed statistics. Starting in 2008 a new web solution called BASIL (The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training) was used for the data collection.

The main users are Ministry of Education and Research and The Norwegian Directorate of Education and Training. Other users include public sector agencies, private organisations, individuals, international organisations and media.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

The account statistics for private kindergartens are related to other statistics in Statistics Norway, such as Children in kindergartens, Households payments in kindergartens and Employees in kindergartens and schools.

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

The statistics are part of the national program for official statistics 2021-2023.

Main area Education, sub-area Kindergarten.

The statistics include all privately owned kindergartens (industry code 88.911 - classification of standard industrial classification) which has been in operation throughout the financial year. Furthermore, the statistics comprise data from privately-owned ordinary kindergartens, family day-care centers and the mixed ordinary kindergartens and family day-care centers.

The statistics are based on a questionnaire from the BASIL database (BArnehage-Statistikk-InnrapporteringsLøsning). The questionnaire is sent to all privately-owned kindergartens.

The statistics include the whole population of private kindergartens that has been in operation throughout the whole financial year and also reported on the forms "Annual reports for kindergartens as of 15 December".

The web solution presently in use for the data collection is called BASIL (BArnehage-Statistikk-InnrapporteringsLøsning) and is administered by The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training. Username and password is sent out to every kindergarten and the kindergartens reports on the questionnaire.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

Employees of Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures if there is a risk of the respondent’s contribution being identified. This means that, as a general rule, figures are not published if fewer than three units form the basis of a cell in a table or if the contribution of one or two respondents constitutes a very large part of the cell total.

Statistics Norway can make exceptions to the general rule if deemed necessary to meet the requirements of the EEA agreement, if the respondent is a public authority, if the respondent has consented to this, or when the information disclosed is openly accessible to the public.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

The numbers of kindergartens included in the statistics vary from year to year. This statistics show income and expences in private kindergartens, and do not give information about numbers of private kindergartens.

The calculation of costs is modified in 2021.

From 2015 onwards, children 0-2 years old are weighted by 2. Children 3-6 years old are not weighted.

Returned questionnaires are registered into a database called BASIL. The registration programme contains automatic controls, and questionnaires which fail to pass the controls are checked individually. Nevertheless, the results of a statistical survey may contain collection and processing errors.

The questionnaire is sent out to all none-municipal kindergartens in Norway. The response rate is not 100 per cent, but normally over 90 per cent. The statistics are therefore representative.

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.