Data set from Expansion to early childcare entitlements: Childcare Experiences Survey

Section 4 - Hours per week spent in formal childcare by region

Latest data

Published 1 September 2026

Last updated 1 September 2026

How many hours per week respondent's child was spending in formal childcare arrangements, by region.

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Data set details

• Theme: Early years
• Publication: Expansion to early childcare entitlements: Childcare Experiences Survey
• Release: Spring term 2025/26 Fifth Wave
• Number of rows: 10
• Geographic levels: National, Regional
• Indicators:
  • Mean hours of childcare used per week
  • Median hours of childcare used per week
• Time period: 2026

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Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data

time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	region_code	region_name	mean_weekly_hours	median_weekly_hours
2026	Reporting year	National	E92000001	England			27.8	30
2026	Reporting year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000001	North East	25	24
2026	Reporting year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000002	North West	28.2	30
2026	Reporting year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000003	Yorkshire and The Humber	27	28
2026	Reporting year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000004	East Midlands	26.9	27

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Variables in this data set

Table showing all 2 variables

Variable name	Variable description
mean_weekly_hours	Mean hours of childcare used per week
median_weekly_hours	Median hours of childcare used per week

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Footnotes

1. Due to the extremely small sample size, respondents using more than 70 hours of childcare per week were considered outliers and excluded from analysis.

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Section 4 - Hours per week spent in formal childcare by region statistics and data:

Early Years Entitlements Evaluation and Analysis Team

Email: Your.childcare@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Julia Moldawan

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