Census dates

Find out when you'll need to submit data to us.

Every local authority is required to provide an individual child level early years census return in 2026.

Every funded early years setting in England must provide the necessary information to their local authority to enable them to complete this return.

Local authorities should work closely with early years providers to make sure that:

all pupils who are in scope for the early years census are included in the return
data supplied from early years providers is correct

Local authorities may want to notify their providers of their own submission deadlines.

Census day

The early years census day is Thursday 15 January 2026.

The census will collect data on all children taking up free provision during census week.

The deadline for loading data onto COLLECT is Friday 6 March 2026.

This is to allow for error correction, credibility checking and authorisation to take place before the collection closes.

You must submit and approve your census return by Friday 10 April 2026.

From Summer 2026, the EY census will be collected termly over the financial year. The census dates are as follows:

census date - Thursday 21 May 2026. The census will collect data on all children taking up free provision during census week.
loading deadline – Friday 19 June 2026
submission deadline - Friday 17 July 2026

census date - Thursday 1 October 2026. The census will collect data on all children taking up free provision during census week.
loading deadline - Friday 6 November 2026
submission deadline - Friday 4 December 2026

census date - Thursday 21 January 2027. The census will collect data on all children taking up free provision during census week.
loading deadline - Friday 5 March 2027
submission deadline - Friday 2 April 2027