Building Strong Foundations for Life

Annex A. Contextual indicators

Table A A.1. Demographics and living conditions

Participating jurisdictions	Population of children under age 5, 2020	Population of children under age 15, 2020	Total Fertility Rate, 2020	Living arrangements of children aged 0-17 by presence of parents in the household, 2020			Share of men and women aged 25-34 having completed ISCED level 5 or a higher level of education, 2020
	% relative to total population	% relative to total population	Average number of children born per woman	% living with two parents	% living with one parent	Other	% relative to total population of the same age
Baku, Sumgait (Azerbaijan)	6.9	23.2	1.7	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	25.1b
Ceará, Pará, São Paulo (Brazil)	7.0	20.9	1.7	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	22.7
England (United Kingdom)	5.5	17.4	1.6	78.1a	20.8 a	1.1a	56.4
Flemish Community (Belgium)f	5.1	16.4	1.6	75.5	24.2	0.3	51.4
Korea	3.4	12.2	0.8	90.7	8.6	0.7	69.8
Malta	4.4	13.2	1.1	75.1	23.9	1.0	40.2
Netherlands	4.9	15.6	1.5	87.4	12.2	0.3	52.2
United Arab Emirates	6.8	16.6	3.3g	n.a.	n.a.	n.a.	55.8c

 

Participating jurisdictions	Child relative poverty rates, 2020	Parental leave entitlements, 2020
	% of children aged 0-17 with an equivalized household disposable income (i.e. after taxes and transfers adjusted for household size) below the poverty line	Paid maternity leave
		Length (weeks)	Average payment rate (%)
Baku, Sumgait (Azerbaijan)	6.2d	18	100
Ceará, Pará, São Paulo (Brazil)	26.3	Private sector: 17 Public sector: 26	n.a.
England (United Kingdom)	11.9	39	31
Flemish Community (Belgium)	5.0	15	77
Korea	9.5	13	82
Malta	23.4e	14 (plus 4 weeks optional)	100 (fixed rate for the optional 4 weeks)
Netherlands	10.3	16	100
United Arab Emirates	n.a.	Private sector: 8.6 Public sector: 13	Private sector: 75 Public sector: 100

Note: OECD members are listed in black font. Partner countries/economies are listed in blue font. Sub-national jurisdictions are listed in italics. The table presents country-level indicators. a) Data on living arrangements of children for United Kingdom from 2018; b) Data on proportion of adults with tertiary education in Azerbaijan refers to adults aged 25-64 in 2022; c) Data on proportion of adults with tertiary education for the United Arab Emirates refers to adults aged 25 or above; d) Proportion of Azerbaijan’s population living below the national poverty line in 2020; e) Data on child relative poverty rate for Malta is from 2021; f) Data for the Flemish Community (Belgium) refer to the Flemish Region and one-third of the Brussels-Capital Region, except for the indicator on living arrangements of children, which refers to the national level; g) Fertility rate data for the United Arab Emirates refers to Emirati women only. ISCED: International Standard Classification of Education.

Sources: Data for OECD member and accession countries: (OECD, 2026[1])), Historical population data, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4ce (accessed on 15 January 2026) (OECD, 2025[2])): OECD Family Database, https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/oecd-family-database.htm, accessed on March 13 2026l; (OECD, 2025[3])Adults' educational attainment distribution, by age group and gender, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4cf; Data for the Flemish Community (Belgium) (except on children’s living arrangements): self-reported data based on information from (Statbel, 2025[4]) (https://statbel.fgov.be). Data for non-OECD member countries: self-reports from a survey of countries and economies participating in IELS 2025; Data on educational attainment in Malta: (EUROSTAT, 2025[5]), https://doi.org/10.2908/EDAT_LFSE_03; Data on educational attainment in Azerbaijan: (European Training Foundation, 2023[6])(2023): Key policy developments in education, training and employment – Azerbaijan 2023. https://www.etf.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-01/Country%20Fiche_Azerbaijan_2023_EN_web.pdf accessed on October 12, 2025, Data on poverty rate in Azerbaijan: (Asian Development Bank, 2023[7])(2023): Basic Statistics, Asia and the Pacific 2023, ADB Data Library, https://data.adb.org/dataset/basic-statistics-asia-and-pacific., accessed on October 12, 2025.

Table A A.2. Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) systems

Participating jurisdictions	ECEC system governance (integrated under one leading authority vs. split between different authorities)	ECEC mandatory enrolment and starting age	Presence of unified curriculum for all ECEC centres and applicable age group	Qualifications required to work as a teacher in pre-primary education (ISCED 02)	Ratio of students to teaching staff in pre-primary education (ISCED 02), 2023	Enrolment rate for 3-5-year-olds, 2023
Baku, Sumgait (Azerbaijan)	Integrated	Not mandatory	Ages 1–6: National standards for preschool education and a unified Preschool Education Curriculum	ISCED 2: Lower secondary education	15 to 20a	50.2
Ceará, Pará, São Paulo (Brazil)	Integrated	Mandatory – from age 4	Ages 0–5: Content guidelines for curriculum planning	ISCED 6: Bachelor’s or equivalent level	18.7	75.5
England (United Kingdom)	Integrated	Not mandatory	Ages 0–5: The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework sets curriculum standards among other statutory requirements	ISCED 2: Lower secondary education	32.5	97.7c
Flemish Community (Belgium)	Split	Mandatory – from age 5	Ages 2.5–6: Developmental goals set by the Flemish Ministry of Education and Training	ISCED 6: Bachelor’s or equivalent level	13.2	99
Korea	Shifting from split to integrated system	Not mandatory	Ages 3-5: A national curriculum for kindergartens and childcare centres Ages 0–2: A standard care curriculum for childcare centres	ISCED 5: Short-cycle tertiary education	11.7	95.7
Malta	Integrated	Not mandatory	Ages 0–3: National standards for ECEC services Ages 0–7: National education policy goals	ISCED 4: Post-secondary non-tertiary education	14b	85.6 (3-year-olds); 90.5 (5-year-olds)
Netherlands	Split	Not mandatory	No national curriculum framework, but general pedagogical guidelines	ISCED 3: Upper secondary education	15.9	93.2
United Arab Emirates	Split	Not mandatory	Ages 4–6: National curriculum framework	ISCED 6: Bachelor’s or equivalent level	20a	n.a.

Note: OECD members are listed in black font. Partner countries/economies are listed in blue font. Sub-national jurisdictions are listed in italics. The table presents country-level indicators. a) Data for Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates is based in on self-reports; b) Data for Malta refers to Maximum number of children at age 4 allowed per core practitioner; c) The enrolment rate in the United Kingdom refers to 4-year-olds only.

Source: Self-reports from a survey of jurisdictions participating in IELS 2025. Ratio of students to teaching staff in pre-primary education and enrolment in ECEC: (OECD, 2024[8]) Education at a Glance, https://doi.org/10.1787/c00cad36-en Students-to-teacher ratio for Malta: European Commission, EACEA, (Eurydice, 2025[9])(2025), Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe – 2025, https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/publications/key-data-early-childhood-education-and-care-europe-2025; accessed on March 24, 2025.

References

[7] Asian Development Bank (2023), Basic Statistics, Asia and the Pacific, https://data.adb.org/dataset/basic-statistics-asia-and-pacific (accessed on 15 October 2025).

[6] European Training Foundation (2023), Key Policy Developments in Education,Training and Employment - Azerbaijan 2023, https://www.etf.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-01/Country%20Fiche_Azerbaijan_2023_EN_web.pdf (accessed on 12 October 2025).

[5] EUROSTAT (2025), Population in private households by educational attainment level - main indicators, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/product/page/EDAT_LFSE_03 (accessed on 12 October  2025).

[9] Eurydice (2025), Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe - 2025, https://eurydice.eacea.ec.europa.eu/publications/key-data-early-childhood-education-and-care-europe-2025 (accessed on 24 March  2025).

[1] OECD (2026), Historical Population Data, OECD Publishing, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4ce (accessed on 13 February  2026).

[2] OECD (2025), , OECD Family Database, https://www.oecd.org/en/data/datasets/oecd-family-database.html (accessed on 12 March 2026).

[3] OECD (2025), Adults“ educational attainment distrbution, by age group and gender, https://data-explorer.oecd.org/s/4cf (accessed on 15 January  2026).

[8] OECD (2024), Education at a Glance 2024: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c00cad36-en.

[4] Statbel (2025), Living conditions Flemish Community (Belgium), https://statbel.fgov.be (accessed on 12 January  2026).