This report analyses the 2024 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) results as reported in the AEDC national report 2024: early childhood development in Australia. The AEDC is a survey of Australian children that measures their development in five domains:

• physical health and wellbeing
• social competence
• emotional maturity
• language and cognitive skills
• communication skills and general knowledge.

The results show increased levels of developmental vulnerability in Australian children. There is also a continued trend of worrying levels of developmental vulnerability amongst children living in the most disadvantaged areas. 

Efforts to expand access to early learning must be matched by a focus on quality, equity and inclusion. Australia is expanding access to early childhood education, but access alone is not enough. Without targeted strategies, educational inequity will deepen, not narrow.

Key findings

• The 2024 AEDC results show some of the sharpest increases in children’s developmental vulnerability since the survey began, across almost all states and territories and domains.
• There were thousands more children starting school developmentally vulnerable in 2024 than there were in 2021.
• From 2021, Australian children’s results have declined on all domains, especially emotional maturity and social competence.
• Measures for developmental vulnerability show that children living in the most disadvantaged communities are not faring well, with developmental vulnerability increasing in all domains since 2021.