UK Nursery Statistics 2026
Costs, Ofsted ratings and provider counts — computed from the official early-years register and anonymous parent fee reports.
Last updated 12 July 2026. Free to cite with attribution: “NurseryMatch — www.nurserymatch.com”.
62,905
Registered providers
38,207 / 24,698
Nurseries / childminders
13.4%
Rated Outstanding
—
Avg monthly fee
Ofsted grade distribution
4,664
Outstanding
29,929
Good
0
Requires improvement
214
Inadequate
28,098
unrated
By region
| Area | Providers | Outstanding % | Avg fee (sample) |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 13,418 | 11% | — |
| South East | 11,495 | 12.9% | — |
| East of England | 7,299 | 17.9% | — |
| North West | 6,367 | 11.3% | — |
| South West | 5,454 | 14.9% | — |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 4,808 | 17.4% | — |
| West Midlands | 4,631 | 14.6% | — |
| East Midlands | 4,397 | 6.4% | — |
| Scotland | 3,276 | — | — |
| North East | 1,732 | 16.4% | — |
| Not Recorded | 28 | 0% | — |
By local authority
Methodology
Ofsted Early Years register (Open Government Licence v3.0); fees are anonymous parent reports on NurseryMatch.
Fee averages are published only for segments with at least 5 providers that each have 3+ parent fee reports; sample sizes are shown alongside every figure.
Funded place counts are provider-supplied and incomplete — treat as minimums.
Journalists and researchers: this data is free to reuse with attribution — see the press kit or query it directly via our free API.
Inspection data sourced from Ofsted (England), Care Inspectorate (Scotland), and CIW (Wales), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. NurseryMatch is independent of Ofsted, the Care Inspectorate, CIW, and the UK Government.