Living Conditions Survey (LCS)

Access to Services Module

The percentage of children under the age of three attending childcare centres reached 54.5% in 2024, up from 39.5% in 2016. In 39.2% of cases, the household did not pay for the childcare, 19.4 points higher than in 2016.

By household type, children under three years of age in households with two adults and two children were the most likely to attend childcare centres (61.3%).

Childcare centre attendance was lower among children from lower income households (39.9%) than among children from higher income households (60.1%). This difference in percentages is lower than that obtained in 2016 (22.3% with low incomes and 59.3% with high incomes).

On the other hand, 59.6% of the lowest income households did not have to pay for their children under the age of three to attend childcare centres. In 2016, this percentage was 63.6%.

12.3% of households with children under three years old who attended child care centres reported paying for them with "difficulty" or "great difficulty". This percentage rose to 20.2% of households in the lowest income bracket and 2.0% of households with the highest incomes.

By household type, the highest percentage was found among households with two adults and three or more children (17.7%).

Approximately two and a half million Spanish households (12.8% of the total) had a dependent person in 2024. In 26.0% of these households, this person was cared for at home by a paid carer.

By income level, 22.8% of the lowest income households with dependants had home care services, compared with 31.5% of the highest income households.

18.6% of households with dependants and who received home care paid for it with "difficulty" or "great difficulty", compared with 36.6% in 2016. In 30.3% of cases the household did not have to pay for the services because they were funded by a government agency or another institution. In 2016, the percentage was 21.0%.

37.1% of households with dependants had an unmet need for home care services, either because they were not available or because they required more hours of care. In 2016, the percentage was 30.8%.

53.2% of households used public transport in 2024. For 4.9% of them, the cost of public transport was a heavy burden.

In lower-income households, this percentage stood at 9.7%. And in the higher-income brackets, 1.7%.

8.9% of those who had tried to rent or buy a house in the five years prior to the time of the interview reported feeling discriminated against.

Among those who had contacted a government agency in the last year, 7.7% reported having experienced discrimination.

3.8% of people felt discriminated against in public spaces such as shops, cafés, restaurants or sports facilities. Of these, 38.2% indicated their immigrant or ethnic origin as the main reason. This same reason was reported by more than 20% of those who felt discriminated against in the other contexts investigated.

The Living Conditions Survey (LCS) is an annual statistical operation aimed at households which is conducted in all European Union countries. It is a harmonised statistic supported by Regulation (EU) 2019/1700 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 10 October 2019 which establishes a common framework for European statistics related to people and households, based on individual data collected from samples.   

The Living Conditions Survey (LCS) includes various modules each year, harmonised at the European level, for an in-depth study of different aspects of the life of households. The 2024 edition included a module about access to services. In 2012, a similar module was included, which allowed the changes occurring between 2016 and 2024 to be understood in greater detail.

The 2024 LCS was carried out by the National Statistics Institute (INE) in collaboration with the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT) within the scope of the autonomous community.

Type of survey:

annual.

Collection period:

february to may 2024.

Sample size:

The effective sample is made up of about 72,000 people.

Type of sampling:

a panel survey in which the people interviewed collaborate for four consecutive years. It’s a stratified two-stage sampling process. The first stage units are the census tracts and the second stage units are the inhabited family dwellings.

Collection method:

the collection method is multichannel, offering the household the possibility of responding online (CAWI) or conducting the survey by telephone interview or face-to-face.

More information on the methodology and the standardised methodological report.

INE statistics are produced in accordance with the Code of Good Practice for European Statistics. More information on Quality at INE and Code of Best Practices.