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 2025 ECE census week was 23-29 June. 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

Participation

• The number of children attending licensed ECE services decreased from 194,597 to 193,033 (a 1% decrease). This was driven by a decrease in the number of 2-year-old children attending, which declined by 3,435 children (a 7.8% decrease).
• The number of children attending licensed ECE services increased for children aged 0, 3, 4 and 5 years-old.
• 4-year-olds had the highest rate of attendance with 89% of 4-year-olds in the estimated New Zealand population attending during the 2025 ECE Census week.
• Education and care services continued to be the most common ECE service type attended. Of all children attending a licensed early learning service during the 2025 ECE Census week, 72% attended an education and care service.

Services

• There were 4,390 licensed early childhood services, a 0.4% decline from 4,408.
• The occupancy rate for education and care services was 82%. Occupancy rates for kindergartens and playcentres were 85% and 57%, respectively. Capacity rates for education and care services, kindergartens and playcentres were 58%, 74% and 49%, respectively.
• The proportion of services with wait lists decreased for all age groups. The percentage of services with wait lists decreased for all age groups: a 4 percentage point decline for ages 0 to 3 years and a 3 percentage point decline for age 4.

Teaching staff

• There were 33,712 teaching staff (qualified and unqualified) at licensed early childhood services. This was a 1% increase from 33,297 teaching staff in 2024.
• The number of qualified teachers increased by 2%, from 23,687, to 24,167. The number of unqualified teachers decreased by 0.7% from 9,610 to 9,545.
• The proportion of teaching staff that were qualified increased by 1 percentage point to 72%.
• The number of home-based educators at licensed home-based services increased by 0.6% from 3,534 to 3,554.
• Overall, 80% of home-based educators were qualified (70% home-based qualifications and 10% ECE/primary qualifications).
• The teaching staff retention rate was 85% in 2025, an increase of 1 percentage point from 2024. The inverse of the retention rate is the teaching staff turnover rate. In 2025, the turnover rate was 15%, a decrease of 1 percentage point from 2024.