Take-up of funded early education, England
Accredited official statistics
The share of eligible children registered for funded early education each January in England: 3 and 4-year-olds for the universal entitlement and 2-year-olds for early learning for 2-year-olds, from the DfE.
England
90.15%
January 2026 · 1,127,056 3 and 4-year-olds registered for the universal entitlement
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:17 UTC- 3 and 4-year-olds
- 3-year-olds
- 4-year-olds
- 2-year-olds
Source: Department for Education. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
9 periods, newest first
| Period | 3 and 4-year-olds | 3-year-olds | 4-year-olds | 2-year-olds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2026 | 90.15% | 87.68% | 92.51% | 71.60% |
| January 2025 | 90.96% | 88.62% | 93.33% | 65.17% |
| January 2024 | 92.04% | 89.84% | 94.15% | 74.76% |
| January 2023 | 94.20% | 91.41% | 96.95% | 73.95% |
| January 2022 | 95.94% | 93.35% | 98.46% | 71.90% |
| January 2021 | 94.19% | 90.58% | 97.71% | 61.79% |
| January 2020 | 97.02% | 95.01% | 99.01% | 69.16% |
| January 2019 | 97.09% | 95.02% | 99.17% | 67.82% |
| January 2018 | 97.16% | 95.44% | 98.86% | 71.78% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Education
- Check it yourself
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 8 November 2026, 13:08 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/019efe35-3052-7638-9105-4edbf506eb54/meta?dataSetVersion=1.0SHA-256 3b8b4d042ce779b3f2fdce83626dec9009aadd9b8d322d2019e666c16e1d1bb0 · 13,983 bytes
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/019efe35-3052-7638-9105-4edbf506eb54/query?dataSetVersion=1.0&indicators=WcUd2,mUdf9,0evCT&geographicLevels.in=NAT,REG&timePeriods.in=2018%7CRY,2019%7CRY,2020%7CRY,2021%7CRY,2022%7CRY,2023%7CRY,2024%7CRY,2025%7CRY,2026%7CRY&pageSize=10000SHA-256 3fd174eb61fbecae943570f078acdb57f595bcfc2546144ce0ffb349ab8054c2 · 121,225 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 8 November 2026, 13:17 UTC Run at 8 November 2026, 13:17 UTC; 36 of 36 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Education; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-08T13:08:00Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 36 of 36 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's children match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 36 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 36 of 36 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (1 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's children match |
| Pass | EES data set is current | latest period January 2026 ended 281 days before retrieval (limit 560) |
| Pass | The data set's CSV agrees | 1620 of 1620 cells of the stored query, figures and marks, equal version 1.0's CSV (https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/019efe35-3052-7638-9105-4edbf506eb54/csv?dataSetVersion=1.0, 540 rows read) |
| Pass | The hub's early-education-take-up-by-council agrees | 1 of 1 figures match early-education-take-up-by-council's record (England's 3 and 4-year-olds in January 2026) |
| Pass | The regions add up to England | in 45 of 45 periods and combinations England's regions add up to England within the rounding the DfE states (45 exactly) |
| Pass | Each take-up rate is its registered children over those eligible | 540 of 540 rates, England's and the regions' in every period, are their registered children over the estimate eligible, within half of the last decimal place given |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/funded-early-education-and-childcare – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Children registered in January for the government-funded entitlements, in any setting, as a share of the DfE's estimate of those eligible: every 3 and 4-year-old for the universal 15 hours, and 2-year-olds who meet the criteria for early learning for 2-year-olds (families on certain benefits or low incomes, children looked after or with an EHC plan, among others).
- The estimates of eligible children come from population estimates and, for 2-year-olds, DWP's records, so a take-up rate can move with the estimate as well as with registrations. The registered children and the estimates behind each share are in the record's data.
- The entitlements for working parents, from 9 months old, are counted in another of the DfE's files, not in this data set, so they are not here.