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Home > Early childhood education and care in Canada 2024/2025

Early childhood education and care in Canada 2024/2025 [1]

Rainbow coloured popsicle sticks and children of all ages
Martha Friendly, Jane Beach, Gayaththiri Aruran, Alexie Cossette, Luyu Hu, Jade Lillace, Barry Forer
4 Feb 2026
15th edition
464pp
ISBN 978-1-896051-89-5

 

The current edition of ECEC in Canada is now available for download in PDF

Download the full publication in pdf [2]. Section pdfs are available below.

See the ECEC in Canada archive [3] for previous editions.

Read the ECEC in Canada 2024/2025 news release. [4]

Summary and analysis of key findings

Key Findings from Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2024/2025: Summary and Analysis [5]

Faits saillants du rapport Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2024/2025: Résumé et Analyse [6]

Executive summary

Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2024/2025 is the 15th and latest report in the ECEC in Canada series [3], which the Childcare Resource and Research Unit has regularly developed for more than 30 years. This report features data on child care spaces, enrolment, auspice, and funding; kindergarten enrolment and provision; and detailed policy and program information. It covers the period from 2022 to 2025, a time of unique changes in Canadian child care.

This report closely documents these changes, focusing on key areas such as parent fees, the child care workforce, and funding, capturing developments and successive iterations of policy as much as possible. Generally, the descriptive information in this report covers 2022 to 2025, while the numerical information captures point-in-time snapshots of March 31, 2024, and March 31, 2025. 

ECEC in Canada 2024/2025 also features several new additions, including a glossary of key terms, more enrolment data, and data specific to the implementation of CWELCC in each province and territory. The report contains 29 comparative tables: 18 Canada-wide and 11 longitudinal.

This report is an indispensable tool for researchers, advocates, and government policy makers for identifying, analyzing, and assessing recent changes in Canada’s child care landscape.

Published approximately every two years since 1992, the ECEC in Canada reports serve as Canada's sole source of consistently, recurrently, and reliably collected and presented data on early childhood education and care. These reports provide cross-jurisdictional longitudinal data and information about regulated child care, kindergarten, and parental leave.

Download ECEC in Canada 2024/2025

 

AttachmentSize
PDF icon Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2024/2025 - Full publication [464pp] [2]4.47 MB
PDF icon Copyright, Table of contents, Acknowledgements, About, Data sources, and Glossary [7]843.37 KB
PDF icon Parental leaves and benefits [8]294.81 KB
PDF icon Federal early learning and child care programs [9]271.66 KB
PDF icon First Nations, Inuit, and Métis early learning and child care [10]305.58 KB
PDF icon Newfoundland and Labrador [11]826.28 KB
PDF icon Prince Edward Island [12]797.46 KB
PDF icon Nova Scotia [13]804.61 KB
PDF icon New Brunswick [14]654.54 KB
PDF icon Quebec [15]829.95 KB
PDF icon Ontario [16]850.53 KB
PDF icon Manitoba [17]826.81 KB
PDF icon Saskatchewan [18]814.41 KB
PDF icon Alberta [19]813.65 KB
PDF icon British Columbia [20]855.3 KB
PDF icon The Yukon [21]780.43 KB
PDF icon Northwest Territories [22]803.68 KB
PDF icon Nunavut [23]751.88 KB
PDF icon Comparative tables: The big picture [24]982.43 KB
PDF icon Comparative tables: The long view [25]786.22 KB
Tags: 
$10 a day [26]
affordability [27]
auspice [28]
CWELCC [29]
for-profit [30]
funding [31]
Indigenous child care [32]
kindergarten [33]
legislation [34]
regulations [35]
ECEC in Canada

Source URL (modified on 18 Feb 2026):https://childcarecanada.org/publications/ecec-canada/26/02/early-childhood-education-and-care-canada-2024-2025

Links
[1] https://childcarecanada.org/publications/ecec-canada/26/02/early-childhood-education-and-care-canada-2024-2025 [2] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Full-Publication.pdf [3] https://childcarecanada.org/publications/ecec-in-canada [4] https://childcarecanada.org/documents/child-care-news/26/02/just-released-early-childhood-education-and-care-canada-20242025 [5] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC2024-FR-Key-Findings-FEB-3.pdf [6] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC2024-FR-Key-Findings-FINAL_0.pdf [7] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Acknowledgements-Contents-About-DataSource_0.pdf [8] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Parental-Leaves-Benefits.pdf [9] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Federal-ELCC-Programs.pdf [10] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-FirstNations-Metis-Inuit-ELCC.pdf [11] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Newfoundland-and-Labrador.pdf [12] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Prince-Edward-Island.pdf [13] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Nova-Scotia.pdf [14] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-New-Brunswick.pdf [15] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Quebec.pdf [16] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Ontario.pdf [17] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Manitoba.pdf [18] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Saskatchewan.pdf [19] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Alberta.pdf [20] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-British-Columbia.pdf [21] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Yukon.pdf [22] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Northwest-Territories.pdf [23] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Nunavut.pdf [24] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Comparative-Tables-The-big-picture.pdf [25] https://childcarecanada.org/sites/default/files/ECEC-2024-2025-Comparative-tables-The-long-view.pdf [26] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/10-a-day-child-care [27] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/affordability [28] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/auspice [29] https://childcarecanada.org/taxonomy/term/9278 [30] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/profit [31] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/funding [32] https://childcarecanada.org/taxonomy/term/9100 [33] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/kindergarten [34] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/legislation [35] https://childcarecanada.org/category/tags/regulations