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Data on the Early Childhood Development Index for children aged 36 to 59 months suggest that the wealth gap mostly stagnated or increased. The methodology of this indicator, which captures the percentage of young children developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, has been thoroughly updated. Learning starts in the home. In 2012–19, 62% of children were engaged in four activities or more by an adult in the household in a set of low- and middle-income countries. The percentage was below 20% in the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Togo. An important constraint on stimulating activities such as joint reading is the availability of books. On average, less than a quarter of children under 5 had at least three books at home. In half the countries, less than 1 in 10 children do; in 8 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, less than 1% of children do.

The right to education begins at birth. By the time a child reaches age 3, 90% of its brain is developed. Participation of children under 3 in early childhood care and education programmes tends to be limited, though it reaches over 20% for ages 0 to 1 and over 60% for age 2 in several middle- and high-income countries. Even in high-income countries, access to early childhood care and education is still very much dependent on socioeconomic background. In France and Ireland, the difference in participation between 0- to 2-year-olds in poor and rich households is over 50 percentage points. Globally, 75% of children were enrolled in pre-primary education one year before the official primary entry age in the school year ending in 2020. The adjusted net enrolment rate was half as high in low-income countries (45%) as in high-income countries (91%).