ECE services
Statistics on providers of ECE, including tables on the number and types of ECE services, and information on waiting times.
Last Updated: February 2024
Early Childhood Education Services
There are different kinds of ECE services offering education and care to children from birth to school age. These services can either be 'teacher-led', 'whānau-led', or 'parent-led'. All ECE services must be licenced or certified by the Ministry of Education.
Teacher-led services need to have at least 50% of required teaching staff who are qualified and certified as ECE teachers. Teacher-led services include kindergartens, education and care services, home-based education and care, and Te Kura (the Correspondence School).
'Whānau-led' or 'Parent-led' means that whānau, parents and caregivers are involved in educating and caring for their children. Te Kōhanga Reo are whānau-led services offering a Māori environment for tamariki and their whānau. Parent-led services includes Playcentres and Playgroups.
ECE Census Summary
The Early Childhood Education (ECE) census is administered every year and provides a snapshot of high level statistics for early learning 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 following documents give an overview of key findings from the latest ECE census.
- A3: Participation in Early Learning 2023[PDF 353kB]
- A3: Services in Early Learning 2023[PDF 344kB]
- A3: Teaching Staff in Early Learning 2023[PDF 312kB]
The tables below provide statistics on the number of ECE services, licensed places and waiting times. These include interactive pivot tables which allow you to create your own tables by any combination of variables available and time-series files which are pre-made tables which centre on key statistics.
Please note: use of the pivot table spreadsheets requires MS Excel version 2007 or later.
New Services
- Pivot Table: New ECE Services (2000-2023) [MS Excel 240kB]
- Time Series Data: New ECE Services (2000-2023) [MS Excel 90kB]
Closed Services
- Pivot Table: Closed ECE Services (2000-2023) [MS Excel 204kB]
- Time Series Data: Closed ECE Services (2000-2023) [MS Excel 93kB]
Number of Services
- Pivot Table: Number of ECE Services (2002-2023) [MS Excel 797kB]
- Time Series Data: Number of ECE Services (2002-2023) [MS Excel 39kB]
Number of Licensed ECE Places
- Pivot Table: Number of Licensed ECE Places (2000-2023) [MS Excel 944kB]
- Time Series Data: Number of Licensed ECE Places (2000-2023) [MS Excel 44kB]
Waiting Times
- Pivot Table: ECE Waiting Times (2002-2023) [MS Excel 1.9mB]
- Time Series Data: ECE Waiting Times (2014-2023) [MS Excel 168kB]
Occupancy Rates
- Time Series Data: Occupancy Rates (2000-2023) [MS Excel 10mB]
Adult:Child Ratio
The adult-to-child ratio is calculated using data captured during the ECE Census week. This measurement compares the number of teaching staff with contact hours, to the number of children that were present during the busiest hour of a service. The adult-to-child ratio is calculated for each service, and then the average and median ratio is taken for each aggregation level i.e. service type. As an example, an average ratio of 3 means that there is an average of 3.0 children to every teacher.
- Time Series Data: Adult:Child Ratio 2023 [MS Excel 96kB]