The tax office handed out childcare benefits for 823,000 children last year, a rise of 59,000 on 2015, the national statistics office CBS said on Thursday.

Some 441,000 of the children were part funded to attend pre and after school clubs, while 437,000 children went to daycare.

In total, 542,000 parents received financial help to pay for childcare of some form, a rise of 42,000 on 2015.

The average payment per family was €3,760 a year, up €340 on a year ago. Given the cost of daycare and after school clubs, families paid some 32% of the fees themselves, the CBS said. In 2015, parents stumped up 37% of childcare costs.

Children in Naarden, Amsterdam, Wassenaar, Amstelveen, The Hague and Rotterdam spent the most time in daycare – an average of more than 1,000 hours. But in Zeeland, Friesland, Drenthe and Overijssel, children were in daycare for an average of fewer than 600 hours a year.