Shrinking playgrounds: how urban density and daycare size limit children’s outdoor space in Oslo

Source abstract

In many countries, early childhood education and care (ECEC) centres constitute important arenas children’s daily life. The outdoor playgrounds of ECEC centres are valuable pedagogical arenas for children’s daily play and learning. However, to act as valuable arenas, the size of the playgrounds in terms of area per child play a role. In a rapid densifying city, such as Oslo, Norway, areas allocated to outdoor playgrounds might be under pressure due to densification. In 2021, Oslo had 571 ordinary ECEC centres distributed across its 15 districts. In this study, outdoor playgrounds of all ordinary private and public ECEC centres were measured, totalling 848,894 m2. This is the first study to quantify disparities in playground spaces across all of Oslo’s daycare centres, highlighting the impact of urban density. The aim is to investigate how density of children per m2 and quantity of space per child (in m2) relates to the population densities of the 15 districts and to the size of ECEC centres in terms of children enrolled. The outdoor play areas vary largely in size per child, with the most densely populated districts having the smallest play areas and highest density of children on the outdoor playgrounds.