SummaryUpdated: February 2026

The Early Childhood Education (ECE) census is administered every year and provides a snapshot of high level statistics for ECE in New Zealand. Data captured is for a one week period, typically the last week in June, and includes information about the services, enrolment/attendance numbers, teaching staff and the use of languages.

The 2025 ECE census week was June 23 to 29. In 2025, ECE census reports were redeveloped to improve data quality across all ECE Service reports and ECE Language use factsheets. Where possible, historical data has been updated to reflect the improved data quality.

Key findings

Te reo Māori

• The number of kōhanga reo decreased by two services, to a total of 412 services, in 2025. There was an increase of six bilingual or immersion te reo Māori ECE services (which were not a kōhanga reo), to a total of 62 services.
• The number of Māori children attending kōhanga reo increased from 8,036 in 2024 to 8,263 in 2025. The number of Māori children attending te reo Māori bilingual or immersion ECE services (which were not a kōhanga reo) increased from 1,440 in 2024 to 1,743 in 2025.
• In 2025, 17% of all mokopuna Māori participating in early learning attended a kōhanga reo and 4% attended a te reo Māori bilingual or immersion service (which were not a kōhanga reo).

Pacific languages

• The number of Pacific bilingual and immersion ECE services increased by three services, to a total of 103 services.
• The number of Pacific children attending Pacific bilingual or immersion ECE services increased by 120 children to 3,064.
• In 2025, 14% of all Pacific children participating in early learning attended a Pacific bilingual or immersion service, an increase of 1 percentage point from 2024.
• Gagana Samoa was the most common language used in Pacific ECE bilingual and immersion services.

Asian languages

• The number of Asian bilingual or immersion ECE services increased by five to 38 services.
• The number of Asian children attending Asian bilingual and immersion ECE services increased by 342 to 1,883 in 2025.
• Just over 4% of Asian children participating in early learning attended an Asian bilingual or immersion service.
• Mandarin was the most common language used in Asian ECE bilingual and immersion services.
• Mandarin was the most common language used in Asian ECE bilingual and immersion services.

The following documents give an overview of key findings from the latest ECE census.