Annual Review & Reports

The International Network on Leave Policies and Research has been producing an annual review of leave policies and related research since 2005. The review covers Maternity, Paternity and Parental leaves; leave to care for sick children and other employment-related measures to support working parents; and early childhood education and care policy. Unfortunately, the Annual Review and all related documents are not yet accessible to everyone including people with disabilities.

The international review provides comparable information on leave policies in participating countries, in the form of country notes. Each country note is organised in four sections: Current leave and other employment-related policies to support parents; Relationship between leave policy and early childhood education and care policy; Changes in policy since the preceding review (including those relating to COVID-19); and Take-up of leave. Before 2018, the review also included a fifth section on Research and publications. In 2020, we included a sub-section on Policy responses to the Covid-19 pandemic (PDF).

The review also includes definitions of the main types of leave policies; and cross-country comparisons. These comparative overviews cover: each main type of leave; the relationship between leave and ECEC entitlements; and policy changes and developments since the previous review. We also include a technical appendix.

The 2025 International Review covers 53 countries. These are: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Cost Rica, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay and Vietnam. Costa Rica is a new country note joining the review this year for the first time.

The content of the International Review is to the best of our knowledge correct at the time of going to press, but mistakes may occur. If you should have a query or find an error, we would be grateful if you would contact the country note authors as relevant and the editors. We recommend that readers consult the most recent version of the International Review where possible, as we are unable to retrospectively rectify errors.