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Digest of Education Statistics
2012 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 59. Child care arrangements of 3- to 5-year-old children who are not yet in kindergarten, by age and race/ethnicity: Various years, 1991 through 2005
[Standard errors appear in parentheses]
Child care arrangement Total Age Race/ethnicity
3 years old 4 years old 5 years old White Black Hispanic Other1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1991 children                                
In thousands 8,402 (40.9) 3,733 (7.1) 3,627 (14.6) 1,042 (38.6) 5,850 (59.9) 1,236 (41.0) 999 (31.3) 317 (34.6)
Percent 100.0 (†) 44.4 (0.21) 43.2 (0.24) 12.4 (0.40) 69.6 (0.67) 14.7 (0.47) 11.9 (0.37) 3.8 (0.41)
Percent in nonparental
     arrangements
100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Relative care 16.9 (0.60) 16.2 (0.72) 18.0 (0.85) 15.6 (1.34) 14.8 (0.66) 24.1 (2.09) 19.6 (2.08) 19.4 (3.87)
Nonrelative care 14.8 (0.56) 14.8 (0.76) 14.7 (0.79) 14.9 (1.81) 17.3 (0.76) 7.9 (1.20) 9.4 (1.27) 12.1 (2.45)
Center-based
     programs2
52.8 (0.89) 42.3 (1.44) 60.4 (1.04) 63.9 (2.12) 54.0 (0.95) 58.3 (2.49) 38.8 (2.20) 52.9 (3.45)
Percent with parental
     care only
31.0 (0.80) 37.8 (1.19) 26.0 (1.05) 24.3 (2.10) 30.6 (0.87) 24.8 (2.02) 40.7 (2.35) 32.8 (4.03)
                                 
1995 children                                
In thousands 9,222 (52.9) 4,123 (8.3) 4,061 (12.5) 1,038 (48.3) 6,334 (94.0) 1,389 (56.1) 1,042 (38.8) 457 (39.1)
Percent 100.0 (†) 44.7 (0.25) 44.0 (0.24) 11.3 (0.46) 68.7 (0.94) 15.1 (0.60) 11.3 (0.42) 5.0 (0.42)
Percent in nonparental
     arrangements
100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Relative care 19.4 (0.64) 21.4 (1.23) 18.4 (0.95) 15.2 (2.14) 16.5 (0.84) 28.7 (2.78) 22.8 (2.01) 22.6 (3.75)
Nonrelative care 16.9 (0.84) 18.5 (1.35) 15.3 (1.03) 17.2 (2.19) 19.4 (1.04) 11.3 (1.65) 12.5 (1.64) 10.5 (2.74)
Center-based
     programs2
55.1 (0.97) 40.7 (1.55) 64.8 (1.45) 74.5 (2.35) 56.9 (1.44) 59.8 (3.19) 37.4 (2.15) 56.7 (5.47)
Percent with parental
     care only
25.9 (1.01) 32.0 (1.95) 22.1 (1.24) 16.2 (1.78) 25.2 (1.39) 19.9 (2.50) 38.4 (2.33) 24.2 (3.59)
                                 
1999 children                                
In thousands 8,518 (139.7) 3,809 (79.1) 3,703 (79.9) 1,006 (54.2) 5,384 (77.4) 1,214 (59.2) 1,376 (52.3) 545 (38.3)
Percent 100.0 (†) 44.7 (0.93) 43.5 (0.93) 11.8 (0.64) 63.2 (0.91) 14.2 (0.69) 16.2 (0.61) 6.4 (0.45)
Percent in nonparental
     arrangements
100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Relative care 22.8 (0.77) 24.3 (1.28) 22.0 (1.14) 20.2 (2.06) 18.7 (0.90) 33.4 (2.58) 26.5 (1.86) 30.0 (3.97)
Nonrelative care 16.1 (0.67) 16.3 (1.02) 15.9 (1.07) 16.1 (2.08) 19.4 (0.88) 7.4 (1.37) 12.7 (1.29) 10.4 (1.98)
Center-based
     programs2
59.7 (0.63) 45.7 (1.28) 69.6 (1.19) 76.5 (2.40) 60.0 (0.81) 73.2 (2.40) 44.2 (2.19) 66.0 (4.10)
Percent with parental
     care only
23.1 (0.72) 30.8 (1.42) 17.7 (0.99) 13.5 (1.78) 23.2 (0.91) 13.7 (1.97) 33.4 (2.04) 16.6 (3.50)
                                 
2001 children                                
In thousands 8,551 (11.0) 3,795 (91.4) 3,861 (89.0) 896 (47.0) 5,313 (68.0) 1,251 (55.1) 1,506 (43.5) 482 (38.3)
Percent 100.0 (†) 44.4 (1.06) 45.1 (1.04) 10.5 (0.55) 62.1 (0.79) 14.6 (0.64) 17.6 (0.51) 5.6 (0.45)
Percent in nonparental
     arrangements
100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Relative care 22.8 (0.89) 23.6 (1.39) 22.5 (1.33) 20.9 (2.66) 19.6 (1.01) 36.7 (3.42) 22.8 (1.89) 22.8 (3.54)
Nonrelative care 14.0 (0.65) 14.7 (1.17) 13.6 (0.95) 13.1 (2.13) 16.5 (0.98) 8.5 (1.65) 11.3 (1.43) 10.8 (2.72)
Center-based
     programs2
56.4 (0.55) 42.8 (1.21) 65.9 (1.25) 73.0 (2.69) 59.1 (0.89) 63.1 (2.93) 39.9 (1.86) 61.8 (4.10)
Percent with parental
     care only
26.1 (0.67) 33.8 (1.29) 20.4 (1.11) 18.0 (2.49) 25.3 (0.99) 15.1 (2.22) 39.0 (2.03) 23.7 (3.90)
                                 
2005 children                                
In thousands 9,066 (9.0) 4,070 (93.0) 3,873 (92.0) 1,123 (67.3) 5,177 (80.2) 1,233 (57.1) 1,822 (50.0) 834 (54.3)
Percent 100.0 (†) 44.9 (1.03) 42.7 (1.01) 12.4 (0.74) 57.1 (0.89) 13.6 (0.63) 20.1 (0.56) 9.2 (0.60)
Percent in nonparental
     arrangements
100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†) 100.0 (†)
Relative care 22.6 (1.02) 24.0 (1.44) 20.8 (1.56) 23.8 (3.17) 21.4 (1.34) 25.0 (3.42) 22.6 (1.79) 26.4 (3.29)
Nonrelative care 11.6 (0.73) 14.4 (1.12) 9.2 (1.03) 9.9 (2.00) 15.0 (1.13) 5.2 (1.31) 8.1 (1.36) 8.1 (1.94)
Center-based
     programs2
57.2 (0.83) 42.5 (1.67) 69.2 (1.36) 68.7 (3.51) 59.1 (1.32) 66.5 (3.41) 43.4 (2.10) 61.5 (3.31)
                                 
Percent with parental
     care only
26.3 (0.92) 33.4 (1.48) 20.6 (1.42) 20.4 (3.15) 24.1 (1.22) 19.5 (2.85) 38.0 (2.10) 24.7 (3.11)
†Not applicable.
1 Includes persons of all other races and two or more races.
2 Center-based programs include day care centers, nursery schools, prekindergartens, preschools, and Head Start programs.
NOTE: Row percents for nonparental and parental care do not add to 100 percent because some children participated in more than one type of nonparental care arrangement. Race categories exclude persons of Hispanic ethnicity. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Early Childhood Education Survey, Parent Survey, and Early Childhood Program Participation Survey of the National Household Education Surveys Program (ECE-NHES:1991; Parent-NHES:1999; and ECPP-NHES:1995, 2001, and 2005). (This table was prepared July 2006.)

2012 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest