The Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) is a national measure of children’s development as they enter their first year of full-time school. The 2024 AEDC took place between 1 May 2024 and 31 July 2024. It included 288,483 children and 16,723 teachers in 7,368 schools. The AEDC reveals trends in early childhood development. It can indicate what is working well to support children, and where opportunities exist to take further action.

Data has been collected nationally every three years since 2009. Each successive collection provides unique insights into the early life experiences of cohorts of children and how these are changing over time.

The AEDC captures data on five key areas or ‘domains’ of early childhood development that have been shown to predict later mental health, wellbeing and educational outcomes. The domains are: physical health and wellbeing; social competence; emotional maturity; language and cognitive skills (school-based); and communication skills and general knowledge.

Key findings

• The percentage of children developmentally vulnerable has increased across all five AEDC domains in 2024.
• The percentage of children developmentally on track on five domains decreased across major cities, inner/outer regional areas, and remote/very remote areas from 2021 to 2024.
• The percentage of First Nations children developmentally on track on five domains stabilised, with a non-significant decline, from 2021 to 2024.