Leipzig's daycare centers: Over 4,000 places unfilled - What happens now?

Leipzig's daycare centers: Over 4,000 places unfilled - What happens now?

In Leipzig, the municipal daycare landscape is facing major challenges. The number of births has fallen in the last two years, resulting in a surplus of over 4,000 unfilled daycare places in the city. This has put pressure on the youth department to act, such as Leipzig Internet newspaper reported. The city council originally assumed that the demand for childcare places would increase, which is why a daycare construction strategy was decided in March 2025 that was intended to take the lower birth rates into account.

There are currently 32,731 daycare places in Leipzig, of which 28,435 are occupied, which corresponds to an occupancy rate of 86.8 percent. Particularly in the daycare area, with an occupancy rate of 73.1 percent and 9,383 places, a large part remains unused. In the kindergarten sector, however, occupancy is relatively high at 92.4 percent, while the city overall has a surplus of 2,126 places. The districts of Southeast, Central, Alt-West and West are clearly affected, while other districts such as Northeast, East and South could also be affected by oversupply.

Daycare closures and financial bottlenecks

The city plans to close older daycare centers that are in great need of renovation in order to defuse the situation. 18 smaller daycare centers have already been closed, meaning 1,355 places are affected. A current example is the daycare center on Nordstrasse, which was closed due to safety concerns. In addition, only 10.4 million euros are available for the necessary renovations in 2025, while the actual financial requirement for necessary renovations is 36 million euros. Even 50 million euros are estimated for 2026. A drastic step, as 15 daycare construction projects that were deemed urgently necessary were also canceled. A total of 2,000 daycare places will not be built and 2,000 places will be eliminated.

The CDU parliamentary group in the city council has already demanded information about upcoming closures. It is pointed out that no daycare centers should be closed “blindly”, according to the representative for youth, schools and democracy, Vicki Felthaus. The decision on possible closures was therefore postponed for the time being. A long-term concept for the care situation is to be presented in the third quarter of 2023.

Prospects and further planning

At a city council meeting on Wednesday, the daycare needs planning until the end of 2024 was decided. By this time, the authorities expect that 31,577 children will need a childcare place, while there are currently 35,411 places available. The enormous surplus not only represents an operational burden for the daycare providers, but also leads to falling financial income, as fewer children mean fewer parental contributions. However, the operating costs remain the same. The city administration is planning to develop a concept to deal with the situation in the medium term, with the involvement of sponsors and politicians MDR reported.

The situation in Leipzig shows how demographic developments have a direct impact on the infrastructure. The coming months will be crucial in finding viable solutions for childcare in the city area while reducing the financial burden on providers.