Detailed statistics about preschool education suitable for in-depth analyses
Microdata: Preschool Education, Australia is compiled with data from the National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection (NECECC). The collection is derived from administrative data provided by the Australian Government Department of Education, state and territory education departments and the Catholic Education Office of the Archdiocese of Canberra and Goulburn. The collection date is the first Friday in August each year and has been conducted annually since 2010. The product contains statistics on children enrolled in and attending a preschool program across Australia.
Statistics in this release may not be fully comparable across states and territories, with previous releases, or with the ABS’ Preschool Attendance publication due to differences in coverage, methodologies, scope, counting rules, and data items collected.
From 2025, and in line with arrangements made between the Australian Government Department of Education and state and territory education departments, attendance data for the 2025 NECECC has not been provided by Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Australian Capital Territory education departments, or by the Australian Government Department of Education for these states and territories. For further details refer to the jurisdictional data quality statements available on the Methodology page.
Information about the collection, including Methodology, and changes to data quality and comparability, are available in Preschool Education. A description of the collection framework is in National Early Childhood Education and Care Collection: Concepts, Sources and Methods (last released, 7 March 2014). Impacts of COVID-19 in the 2020 and 2021 collections can be found in the Impacts of COVID-19 section in Preschool Education.
The following microdata products are available from this collection:
The microdata products cover the following reference periods:
Information about TableBuilder and the DataLab, and other general information to assist users in understanding and accessing microdata, are available from the Microdata Entry Page.
Compare data services to see what's right for you or Frequently asked questions.
A complete list of data items for TableBuilder and the DataLab can be accessed from the Data downloads section. These contain details for each data item including the full output classification and any special codes used.
Users intending to apply for access to the DataLab should ensure the data they require, and the level of detail required, are available and applicable for the intended use.
The TableBuilder provides you with information about how to create basic tables, custom groups, graphs and large tables.
A confidentiality process called perturbation is applied to the data in TableBuilder to avoid releasing information that may lead to the identification of individuals, families, households, dwellings or businesses. See Confidentiality.
The DataLab is an interactive data analysis solution available for users to run advanced statistical analyses, for example, multiple regressions and structural equation modelling.
The DataLab environment contains recent versions of analytical software, including R, SAS, Stata and Python. Controls in the DataLab have been put in place to protect the identification of individuals and organisations. These controls include environmental protections, data de-identification and confidentialisation, access safeguards and output clearance. All output from DataLab sessions is cleared by an ABS officer before it is released. See DataLab page for more information.
Please read the Responsible use of ABS microdata before applying for access.