4402.0 - Childhood Education and Care, Australia, June 2014 Quality Declaration 
ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 28/04/2015   
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HOURS AND COST OF CHILD CARE

USUAL HOURS OF CHILD CARE


For all children who usually attended any child care, the mean time spent in care was 18 hours per week. The median number of hours was 12 per week. Of those children who usually attended formal child care, 38% (352,600) attended for less than 10 hours per week while 9% (86,400) attended 35 or more hours per week. Of those children who usually attended informal child care, 59% (737,400) attended for less than 10 hours per week while 10% (130,700) attended for 35 hours or more per week. (Table 8)

USUAL NET COST OF CHILD CARE

For the majority of children who usually attended formal child care (56% or 515,100), the usual net cost was less than $100 per week. Long day care costs were typically higher than for other forms of child care, with the median cost at $102 per week (Graph 2). A large majority of children (91% or 1.1 million) who usually attended informal child care did so at no cost. (Table 10) See Explanatory Notes for a description of how cost of child care is estimated.


Graph Image for Graph 2 - Children who usually attended formal child care, median cost per week by type of care

Source(s): Childhood Education and Care Survey, Australia, June 2014