Background. To present dental caries in primary dentition becomes a risk factor for developing caries in permanent dentition. Therefore, dental care should start from the first years of life in order to detect and control risk factors to avoid its appearance or complication of oral diseases. Objective. Describe the prevalence of dental caries in children of early childhood (<5 years) of the city of Cartagena and its association with sociodemographic and family factors. Methods. A descriptive cross-sectional study in 630 children aged 2 to 5 years belonging to public and private children's homes. We investigated sociodemographic variables: age and sex of the child, level of education of parents and socioeconomic income and family variables: family structure, the presence of overcrowding and number of siblings. The presence of dental caries is diagnosed by the dmf-t coefficient index. Descriptive statistics and risk estimation were performed through OR with 95% confidence intervals. Results. The prevalence of dental caries in children was 30,79%.In the multivariate analysis, the variables that best explain the presence of dental caries in early childhood are: preschool age of the child (OR: 3,65; 95% CI: 2,23-5,97, p = <0,001) and belong to public homes for children (OR: 2,77; 95% CI: 1,92-3,99, p = <0,001). Conclusions. Belonging to pre-school age (3 to 5 years old) and studying in a public child home could be a risk factor for developing dental caries lesions in early childhood.