Exploring the business dynamics of self-employed child care service providers

Child care in Canada is essential for supporting paid employment for parents, particularly women who do the majority of child care work. This paper examines the characteristics and evolution of the population of small home daycares and their operators that are ubiquitous throughout Canada. It fills an information gap in the current understanding of the child care market in Canada by providing information about the entrepreneurs that run home child cares, their families and their incomes.