Early childhood education and care in Canada 2023

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

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

See the ECEC in Canada archive for previous editions.

Summary and analysis of key findings

Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023:  Summary and Analysis

Services éducatifs et de garde à l’enfance au Canada 2023 : Résumé et analyse

Executive summary

Early Childhood Education and Care in Canada 2023 is the 14th edition in a series that has been regularly developed by the Childcare Resource and Research Unit for 30 years. These reports provide cross-jurisdictional longitudinal data and information about regulated child care, kindergarten, and parental leave. The ECEC in Canada reports have been published approximately every two years since 1992, serving as Canada's sole source of consistently and reliably collected and presented data on early learning and child care (ELCC) over time and across the country, aiming to provide data and information that are accurate and as comparable as possible. See the ECEC in Canada Backgrounder and the online archive of previous editions for additional details.

The publications provide relevant demographic information, profiles of ELCC services and policies in each province/territory, information on kindergarten, and detailed information on regulated child care. This includes information on funding, regulations, the workforce, governance, and spaces by age, type, and auspice, as well as an overview of the current state of ELCC provision and policy Canada-wide. A series of summary tables presents current and longitudinal data across Canada, providing a retrospective view of trends from 1992 to the present.

This 14th edition is a shorter than usual version of ECEC in Canada, featuring mostly numerical data for the 2021 – 2023 period, along with some descriptive information. The numerical data are specific (as much as possible) to the report’s snapshot date, March 2023. It will be followed in 2025 by ECEC in Canada 2024, which will be longer and will provide more detailed descriptive and policy information similar to previous versions. The 15th version will include 2024 data and up-to-date information about policy, programs, funding, the ELCC workforce, and much more. For further detailed information through April 2023, please refer to ECEC in Canada 2021.

ECEC in Canada 2023 provides a snapshot of child care in Canada in the first phase of implementation by provinces and territories of a historic initiative by the Government of Canada. In this period, substantial changes to Canadian child care took shape through the first Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care (CWELCC) agreements and first action plans put in place in 2021 and 2022. As CWELCC is expected to have a transformational effect on ELCC provision, this report can be an indispensable tool for researchers, advocates, and government policy makers for identifying, analyzing, and assessing these changes.

Download ECEC in Canada 2023