UK Nursery Statistics 2026
Costs, Ofsted ratings and provider counts — computed from the official early-years register and anonymous parent fee reports.
Last updated 27 August 2026. Free to cite with attribution: “NurseryMatch — www.nurserymatch.com”.
62,905
Registered providers
37,348 / 25,557
Nurseries / childminders
13.2%
Rated Outstanding
—
Avg monthly fee
Ofsted grade distribution
4,571
Outstanding
29,763
Good
0
Requires improvement
206
Inadequate
28,365
unrated
By region
| Area | Providers | Outstanding % | Avg fee (sample) |
|---|---|---|---|
| London | 13,594 | 10.9% | — |
| South East | 11,433 | 12.9% | — |
| East of England | 7,549 | 17.7% | — |
| North West | 6,293 | 10.7% | — |
| South West | 5,384 | 15.7% | — |
| West Midlands | 4,926 | 14.4% | — |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 4,821 | 17% | — |
| East Midlands | 4,495 | 6.4% | — |
| Scotland | 2,727 | — | — |
| North East | 1,651 | 14.6% | — |
| Not Recorded | 32 | 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.
Use this data
The full dataset — every region and local authority — is free to download and reuse with attribution. Source data is published under the Open Government Licence v3.0; our aggregates are free to reuse with a link to this page.
Suggested citation: “NurseryMatch UK Nursery Statistics, 2026 — www.nurserymatch.com/statistics (accessed 27 August 2026)”. Press enquiries: press kit.