Summary

Key Highlights as at 1 July 2007

• There were 4,479 early childhood education services, a decrease of 0.4% (17) from 1 July 2006.
• There were 3,750 licensed and/or chartered services, an increase of 2.3% (85) from 1 July 2006.
• There were 729 licence-exempt ECE groups, a decrease of 12.3% (102) from 1 July 2006.
• The number of early childhood education services has increased by 4.6% (199) since 2003.
• Of the 3,749 (excludes Correspondence School) licensed and/or chartered early childhood education services, 65.6% (2,460) are community based.  The remaining 34.4% (1,289) are privately owned services.
• Of the 1,968 education and care services (including casual-education and care), which account for 52.5% of all licensed services as at 1 July 2007, 41.7%  (820) are community based and 58.3% (1,148) are privately owned.
• Of the 227 homebased networks, 37.9% (86) are community based and 62.1% (141) are privately owned.
• There were 190,907 children enrolled in early childhood education, an increase of  6.1% (10,907) since 2003.
• There were 171,138 children enrolled in licensed early childhood education services, an increase of 6.8% (10,965) since 2003.
• There were 19,769 children enrolled in licence-exempt ECE groups, a decrease of 0.3% (58) since 2003.
• Of the 91,733 enrolments in education and care services, 41.6% (38,172) were in community-based services and 58.4% (53,561) were in privately owned services.
• Of the 11,073 enrolments in homebased networks, 33.7% (3,737) were in community-based services and 66.3% (7,336) were in privately owned services.