The report examines accessibility to childcare using the most recent data. The authors find that despite some progress in recent years towards a greater provision of childcare in underserved areas, new approaches are needed in order to meet the aim of universal access. 

The report explores different parts of Australia's Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) system to understand what has changed, and what the locations of early childhood providers can tell us about how families experience the early learning system.

Key findings

• There are big differences in the amount of childcare accessibility by state: the Australian Capital Territory has the best access to childcare, while Tasmania has the lowest.
• Overall, childcare accessibility has improved across Australia. In 2020, about 34 per cent of regions were classified as a childcare desert. By 2024, this had dropped to 24 per cent.
• There are two main reasons for this change. The first is that there are more childcare places available. The number of childcare places available has increased by about 10 per cent between 2020 and 2024. The other reason is that the population growth of children aged under five years old has not grown.
• Almost a quarter of the country (24%) - about 700,000 Australians – live in childcare ‘deserts’ where there are more than three children vying for every childcare spot. This is slightly better than 2020, when the figure was 34%.
• Around 80,000 more childcare places have been created since 2020, but the distribution remains uneven.
• Metropolitan and major regional areas have seen the highest growth, while remote areas have grown the least.
• There is greater accessibility where providers charge more, highlighting the importance of incentives in the distribution of childcare places.