Financing for equity in pre-primary education
1. Education resources to subnational governments
2. Education resources to institutions
3. Education resources to students and families
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Introduction
Key financing indicators (UIS Data)
n Sweden, the official entry age for pre-primary education has been set at 3 years old according to the UIS data. While one year of free and compulsory pre-primary education is granted, the net enrolment rate for pre-primary amounted to 96.14% as of 2023.
Governance
Early childhood education and care in Sweden comprises unitary preschool centres (förskola) for children aged 1-5, followed by a compulsory pre-primary class (förskoleklass) at age 6 before entry into primary school. Sweden will introduce a ten-year compulsory school system from autumn 2028. In the new system the pre-primary class will become first grade. Additional options include pedagogical care (pedagogisk omsorg), a home-based provision run by registered childminders, and open preschools (öppen förskola) where children attend with a parent or caregiver without being enroled. All forms of provision fall under the overall responsibility of the Government (the Ministry of Education and Research) and the national parliament, which set national policy, legislation and curriculum frameworks for the sector.
Governance is highly decentralised as municipal authorities are responsible for organising, staffing and implementing early childhood services, including decisions related to resource allocation and daily operations. Financing also rests primarily with municipalities, whose budgets for ECEC are funded through local income taxes complemented by a general, non-earmarked state grant whose value is adjusted for demographic and socio-economic factors. Within this decentralised system, each municipality determines how to allocate resources across preschool and pedagogical care services while meeting national obligations to ensure universal access and quality.
Tuition-free status
From the autumn term of the year a child turns three, all children in Sweden are entitled to universal preschool for at least 525 hours per year (roughly 15 hours per week) free of charge.
1. Education resources to subnational governments
General state grant and equalisation system
State funding for preschool forms part of the general state grant that the central government provides to all 290 municipalities. This grant is not earmarked for preschool but is distributed through Sweden’s Local Government Finance and Equalisation System, which has operated since 1993 to equalise differences in municipal fiscal capacity. The system includes revenue equalisation, cost equalisation, structural grants, transitional grants, and adjustment grants or charges. Revenue equalisation compensates municipalities whose tax base falls below 115 percent of the national average, while wealthier municipalities above this threshold contribute to the system. Cost equalisation is funded horizontally and is based on detailed sector-specific models covering ten mandatory service areas, incorporating more than one hundred variables such as population density, geography, age structure, the number of immigrants and socio-economic characteristics. Municipalities combine this equalised state grant with local income tax revenues to finance preschool provision and allocate resources to individual public and approved independent providers according to local priorities and national obligations.
The government provides national grants for continuing education that municipalities and grant‑aided independent providers can apply for, which effectively function as subsidies to strengthen staffing capacity in public early childhood education and care institutions. These finance salary‑based and credit‑based professional development programmes so that preschool teachers and teachers can study while remaining employed. A specific share of the funding is earmarked to train more teachers as special education teachers to better support children with special educational needs. Providers in schools and preschools located in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas or with a high proportion of children requiring additional support are prioritised for these grants.
2. Education resources to institutions
Public pre-primary institutions are financed through municipal budgets, which receive general state grants and equalisation transfers from the state. Municipalities allocate funding to their public preschools primarily through a per-child municipal grant that reflects the municipality’s average cost of providing preschool services, and they are responsible for ensuring that all children have access to affordable early education. Private preschool providers also receive public financing through the same per-child municipal grant that municipal preschools receive. This subsidy is designed to cover the full operating costs of the preschool, including any additional expenses required to support children with special needs.
3. Education resources to students and families
Parent-targeted financial aid such as childcare vouchers, tax credits or cash benefits is not provided by the Ministry of Education in Sweden. However, financial support is embedded structurally through the national maximum-fee system, and through the universal access to free preschool.
The maximum-fee system for preschool is a scheme where parental fees are capped at a percentage of household income and are adjusted depending on the number of children. Under this system, municipalities charge parents fees based on their income, but there is an upper limit so that even low-income families pay a small, affordable fee or nothing at all.
On top of that, from the autumn term of the year a child turns three, all children in Sweden are entitled to universal preschool for at least 525 hours per year (roughly 15 hours per week) free of charge. This provision applies irrespective of parental employment status, income level, or household composition.
4. Social policies and family support programmes
Sweden provides a universal Child Allowance to all parents or guardians of children under the age of sixteen, regardless of income, employment status or family circumstances. The benefit is administered by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency and is paid monthly as a flat, tax-free amount that is not means-tested and does not include any deduction or income-based reduction component. The allowance is automatically granted when a child is born or moves to Sweden and continues until the child turns sixteen, after which it may be replaced by a study allowance depending on school enrolment. Additional supplements are available for families with more than one child through the large family supplement.
This profile was reviewed by Emma Jansson, Deputy Director of the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research.
