Summary

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 2021 ECE census week was June 21 to 27.

Key Findings

Attendance

• There were 194,697 children attending licensed early learning services in June 2021
• 70% of children were enrolled at an education & care service in June 2021.
• Early learning attendance has decreased from 201,675 in 2016 to 194,697 in 2021 (a 3% decrease).
• The number of children attending early learning services increased by 2% in 2021 compared to 2020.
• Children younger than 3 year olds had the greatest increase of attendance to early learning services in 2021 compared 2020.¹ The percentage of 1 year old increased by six percentage points between 2020 and 2021; while children aged 0 and 2 year increased by three percentage points.*
• The percentage of children attending education & care services increased five percentage points since 2016.
• In 2021, the percentage of children attending kindergartens, home-based services and playcentres decreased compared to 2016.
• The percentage of children attending kōhanga reo has remained stable at 4% since 2016.

Services

• There were 4,652 licensed services in the June 2021 ECE Census.
• 50% of licensed early learning services were education & care services.
• 43% of services reported having a wait list for children aged 2.
• In 2021, occupancy rates decreased for education & care services from 78% in 2020 to 77% in 2021; while for kindergartens occupancy rates remained at 83% and for playcentres occupancy rates increased from 48% to 53%.
• There has been a 2% increase in the number of licensed services since 2016, from 4,541 to 4,652 in 2021.
• The number of education and care services increased from 2,495 in 2016 to 2,736 in 2021 (10% increase).
• The number of kindergartens have also increased from 656 in 2016 to 664 in 2021 (1% increase).
• The number of home-based services, kōhanga reo and playcentres have decreased since 2016.
• Nelson, Wellington and Gisborne have the greatest proportion of services with a waiting list for 2-year-olds (over 60% of services).
• In 2021, the most common waiting period was for more than 1 month and up to 6 months.
• Between 2016 and 2021, the number of services with a waiting list has increased over 34% for children under the age of 2 and between 3% and 7% for older children.

Teaching staff

• There were 32,985 teaching staff (qualified and unqualified) at licensed early learning services reported in June 2021. This is an 8% increase  in teaching staff compared with June 2020 (30,476 teaching staff).
• 52% of teaching staff have child contact time of 25 hours per week or more.
• 62% of teaching staff identify as European/Pākehā.
• The number of qualified teachers increased by 6% from 21,836 in 2020 to 23,133 in 2021. However, the proportion of qualified teachers decreased to 70% in 2021 from 72% in 2020, due to the number of unqualified teachers returning to 2019 levels.
• More than half of teachers (53%) working in early learning services are in the age band of 31 to 51 years (17,532 teachers).
• Older teachers are more likely to be qualified than younger teachers.
• Female teachers account for 97% of teaching staff. This has remained unchanged since 2017.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff decreased for all ethnic groups between 2020 and 2021.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as European/Pākehā decreased from 79% in 2020 to 74% in 2021.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as Asian decreased from 78% in 2020 to 63% in 2021.

Footnotes

1. The percentage of 3 and 4 year olds attending early learning services was calculated using the total population of children by age taken from Stats NZ’s Estimated Resident Population by Age and Sex (1991+) (Annual-Jun).