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 2022 ECE census week was June 13 to 19.

Key Findings

Attendance

• There were 181,045 children attending licensed early learning services in June 2022
• 71% of children were enrolled at an education & care service in June 2022.
• Early learning attendance has decreased from 194,306 in 2021 to 181,045 in 2022 (a 7% decrease).
• The number of children attending early learning services decreased for all ages except for children under 1.
• Children aged 3 and 4 years had the greatest decrease in numbers of children attending between 2021 and 2022; enrolments for children aged 3 and 4 years both decreased by seven percentage points¹.
• Education and Care services continued to be the most common service type attended. This has increased since 2017 (up six percentage points).
• In 2022, the percentage of children attending kindergartens, home-based services and playcentres decreased compared to 2017.
• The proportion of children attending Kōhanga Reo has remained stable at 4% since 2017.

Services

• There were 4,597 licensed services in the June 2022 ECE Census.
• 60% of licensed early learning services were education & care services.
• 43% of services reported having a wait list for children aged 2.
• In 2022, occupancy rates for Education & Care services remained at 77%; while occupancy rates for Kindergartens decreased from 83% in 2021 to 82% in 2022 and occupancy rates for Playcentres decreased from 53% to 49%.
• There has been a 1% increase in the number of licensed early learning services since 2016, from 4,541 to 4,597 in 2022.
• The number of Education & Care services increased from 2,495 in 2016 to 2,741 in 2022 (10% increase).
• The number of Kindergartens increased from 656 in 2016 to 663 in 2022 (1% increase).
• The numbers of home-based services, Kōhanga Reoand Playcentres have each decreased since 2016.
• The proportion of early childhood services with wait lists for children aged up to 1 increased by 5 percentage points between 2021 and 2022 and decreased by 2 percentage points for children 2 and over, while wait lists for children aged 2 remained stable.
• The Nelson region had the highest percentage of services with wait lists (75%) for children aged 1.
• The Otago region had the highest percentage of services with wait lists (61%) for children aged 4, and the Auckland region had the smallest percentage (27%).

Teaching staff

• There were 32,632 teaching staff (qualified and unqualified) at licensed early learning services reported in June 2022. This is an 1% decrease in teaching staff compared with June 2021 (32,985 teaching staff).
• 66% of teaching staff identify as European/Pākehā.
• The number of qualified teachers decreased by 2% from 23,133 in 2021 to 22,655 in 2022.
• The proportion of qualified teachers decreased from 70% in 2021 to 69% in 2022.
• Half of teachers (53%) working in early learning services are in the age band of 31 to 51 years (16,363 teachers).
• Older teachers are more likely to be qualified than younger teachers.
• The proportion of teaching staff who were qualified teachers varied by ethnicity.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as European/Pākehā decreased from 74% in 2021 to 73% in 2022.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as Pacific remained at 67%.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as Asian increased from 63% in 2021 to 66% in 2022.
• The percentage of qualified teaching staff who identify as Māori decreased from 67% in 2021 to 65% in 2022.