Parents in South Korea must wait an average of 7.5 months to place a child in daycare, with waits for classes for 1-year-olds stretching to 8.5 months. The figures have prompted calls for measures to ease the burden on parents of infants and toddlers.
The national average wait for admission to a daycare center stood at 7.5 months as of the end of June this year, according to data on daycare applications and waiting lists over the past five years that Rep. Seo Beom-soo of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Education Committee, obtained from the Ministry of Education and analyzed on the 20th. That is 2.2 months longer than the 5.3 months recorded at the end of 2022, an increase over three and a half years.
By region, Sejong had the longest wait at 8.3 months, followed by Seoul at 8.2 months, Gyeonggi Province at 7.8 months, Busan at 7.7 months and Daegu at 7.6 months.
Waits were longest for classes serving 1-year-olds, averaging 8.5 months nationwide. That marks an increase of 2.7 months from 5.8 months in 2022. Over the same period, waits for classes for infants under 1 rose 2.4 months to 6.2 months from 3.9 months, while waits for 2-year-old classes rose 2.2 months to 8.0 months from 5.8 months.
The waits are longer still at state-run and public daycare centers. The average wait for a 1-year-old class at such centers nationwide rose to 10.6 months as of June this year from 7.9 months in 2022.
Children under 3 require stable care timed to the end of their parents' childcare leave and their return to work. Delays in securing a daycare spot risk disrupting return-to-work plans for dual-income households.
Seo attributed the lengthening waits to a weakening supply of infant care as daycare centers continue to close.
A total of 11,093 daycare centers closed nationwide over the past four and a half years. By year, 3,041 closed in 2022, 2,679 in 2023, 2,240 in 2024, 1,939 in 2025 and 1,194 in the first half of 2026.
"They say the number of children is falling because of the low birth rate, but to get into a daycare center you have to wait eight months, and more than 10 months for a state-run or public center, and even that period keeps getting longer," Seo said. "We need to closely analyze actual childcare demand by region and by age, and in particular come up with practical measures that can shorten waiting times for classes serving children under 3."