Published November 19, 2025 | Version v2
Dataset Open

The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset

Creators

  • 1. Vienna Institute of Demography, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, Austria
  • 2. Department of Demography, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 3. Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS), Vienna, Austria
  • 4. Sciences Po, Paris, France
  • 5. Institut Universitaire de France, France
  • 6. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 7. Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
  • 8. University of Florence, Florence, Italy
  • 9. The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), London, UK
  • 10. Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
  • 11. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain
  • 12. Barcelona School of Economics, Barcelona, Spain
  • 13. Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens, Greece
  • 14. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
  • 15. Institute of Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 16. Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI), University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 17. University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland
  • 18. Praxis Think Tank, Estonia
  • 19. Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
  • 20. University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
  • 21. Social Insurance Institution of Finland, Helsinki, Finland
  • 22. University of Ioannina, Ioannina, Greece
  • 23. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
  • 24. University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
  • 25. HIVA - KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
  • 26. Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), Dublin, Ireland
  • 27. Leverhulme Centre for Demographic Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
  • 28. Nuffield College, Oxford, UK
  • 29. German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin, Germany

Description

The European Parenting Leave Policies (EPLP) Dataset covers maternity, co-parent, paid parental, and job-protected leave regulations across 21 European countries for 55 years, spanning the period from 1970 to 2024. The dataset primarily focuses on policies that shape the length of leave for mothers and their co-parents, and how leave can be shared between them. It provides harmonised data that enables comparisons of policies both across countries and over time, including 33 variables and country-specific reform timelines.

This upload includes both the full documentation and the accompanying workbook. The documentation serves as a guide to understanding and working with the EPLP dataset by explaining its scope, data collection guidelines, definitions, and assumptions. It also includes the dataset’s codebook, an overview of country-specific reforms that affected statutory leave duration, and the main reference sources, which consist of legal documents, official government websites, and secondary literature.

The workbook contains the dataset itself, additional notes to support accurate interpretation, and the complete list of reference sources. Together, the documentation and workbook provide a comprehensive toolkit for researchers, policymakers, and others interested in exploring parenting leave duration policies in Europe using quantitative approaches.

The EPLP Dataset has been developed with great care. However, as with any large-scale data collection effort, some missing information or inadvertent errors may still be present. Feedback, corrections, or suggestions for improvement are welcome and will help enhance the quality and reliability of potential future updates.

Website and contact: https://eplp-dataset.org/

List of countries: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom



List of variables

Category (and prefix)

Variable name

Label

Maternity leave (mat)

mat_m_ld_bb

Mandatory maternity leave duration before birth

mat_m _ld_ab

Mandatory maternity leave duration after birth

mat_v_ld_bb

Voluntary maternity leave duration before birth (maximum duration)

mat_v_ld_ab

Voluntary maternity leave duration after birth (maximum duration)

Co-parent leave (co)

co_ld

Co-parent leave duration (maximum duration)

Job-protected leave after birth (jp)

jp_ld_m

Job-protected leave duration for birth mothers (maximum duration)

jp_ld_cp

Job-protected leave duration for co-parents (maximum duration)

jp_part_time

Job-protected leave is longer if taken part-time

jp_later

Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time

Paid parental leave (maximum duration) - Dimension 1 (par1)

par1_ld

Paid parental leave duration (maximum duration)

par1_fr

Amount of benefits per month (with maximum duration)

par1_rr

Replacement rate (with maximum duration)

par1_cap

Monthly cap (with maximum duration)

par1_for_whom

Mothers only, co-parents only, or both

par1_second_parent

Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration

par1_work

Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave

par1_later

Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time

Paid parental leave (highest monthly flat rate) - Dimension 2 (par2)

par2_ld

Paid parental leave duration (with highest flat rate)

par2_fr

Amount of benefits per month (with highest flat rate)

par2_for_whom

Mothers only, co-parents only, or both

par2_second_parent

Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration

par2_work

Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave

par2_later

Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time

Paid parental leave (highest replacement rate) - Dimension 3 (par3)

par3_ld

Paid parental leave duration (with highest replacement rate)

par3_rr

Replacement rate (with highest replacement rate)

par3_cap

Monthly cap (with highest replacement rate)

par3_for_whom

Mothers only, co-parents only, or both

par3_second_parent

Additional time for second parent if the first parent takes the maximum leave duration

par3_work

Possibility to work / earn money during parts of the leave

par3_later

Possibility to take (parts of) the leave at a later point in time

Additional variables

par_incentives

Incentives for parents to share parental leave

user_note

User note

currency

Country currency


Funder: This work was supported by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (Data:Research:Austria Grant for the Skill-PAL project; project number: DATA_2023-39_Skill-PAL)

Files

EPLP_Dataset_Documentation_v1.pdf

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Additional details

Funding

Austrian Academy of Sciences
Data:Research:Austria DATA_2023-39_Skill-PAL

Dates

Valid
1970/2024
The EPLP Dataset covers the years 1970 to 2024
Created
2024/2025
The EPLP Dataset was created in 2024 and 2025