Childcare Survey

Background

The Northern Ireland Executive has prioritised delivering more affordable, accessible, high quality early education and childcare as part of the Programme for Government 2025 – 2027. This commitment aims to support children’s development, ease financial pressure on working families and expand access to high quality early education and childcare.

The NI Childcare Survey 2024, which took place in Autumn/Winter 2024, was commissioned by the Department of Education and is one part of the commitment to collect more robust and comprehensive data on the sector.

The findings presented in this publication are based on data collected through the survey. They will support the Department of Education in evaluating current provision and inform the development of new policies, specifically, the development of an Early Learning and Childcare strategy.

This publication presents insights on a range of issues including type and amount of childcare used; childcare costs; summer holiday childcare arrangements; financial support claimed including under the Northern Ireland Childcare Subsidy Scheme; factors influencing parental childcare choices including affordability and quality of childcare; and the impact of childcare on employment, education and training.

The analysis is presented at the Northern Ireland level, with breakdowns by sub-regional geographies, family type and child age where appropriate.

Where differences are commented upon, e.g. as differences between sub-groups, these differences are statistically significant.

Data

Northern Ireland Childcare Survey Results

Further information

• Northern Ireland Childcare Questionnaire

Data requests

If you require information that is additional to that already published, please contact the Statistics and Research Team (SRT) . We will conduct special analysis of data held upon request, where it is appropriate.