Queensland Regional Profiles

Queensland Service Map

All Institute regions with service locations coloured by current overall National Quality Standard (NQS) rating and Institute region labels on the map.

Click a region to open its profile

Region fills come from the generated Queensland Institute-region geometry. Service dots show current overall National Quality Standard (NQS) ratings and labels identify the 14 Institute regions. Quality ratings shown here are the latest published ACECQA outcomes and may not reflect current service quality; they depend on the date of the last assessment and rating decision for each service.

Services are defined here as Long Day Care, Kindergartens, Outside School Hours Care and Family Day Care.

Definitions used here: ACECQA; NQS; NQF; OSHC; AEDC; ECEC.

Excellent

Exceeding NQS

Meeting NQS

Working Towards NQS

No Rating

Queensland Snapshot

Statewide service and rating profile for the current profile set.

Queensland service mix

Queensland overall rating mix

Region Directory

Open a report for any Institute region.

Services

Approved Long Day Care, Kindergarten, Outside School Hours Care and Family Day Care services in the current ACECQA snapshot.

Providers

Unique provider approvals connected to services in the region.

Approved Places

The combined maximum approved child places recorded for services in the region.

Positive Ratings

The percentage of rated services currently Meeting NQS, Exceeding NQS or Excellent.

Improved

The percentage of services with a current overall NQS rating higher than the rating recorded 12 months earlier.

Declined

The percentage of services with a current overall NQS rating lower than the rating recorded 12 months earlier.

Region Service Mix Comparison

Service mix across all Institute regions in the current profile set.

Service mix by region

Region Size Ladder

Total services by Institute region.

Total services by region

Region Summary Table

Clickable table view for quick comparison.

Definitions used here: Positive Rating Percentage; Improved/declined.

Data Currency

Reference dates vary across sources because each official release is updated on a different schedule.

Data currency: Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) / National Quality Standard (NQS) service and quality data in these profiles is current to National Quality Framework (NQF) Snapshot Q1 2026 (data as at 1 April 2026; released 14 May 2026) and will be updated quarterly as new Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA) snapshot data becomes available. Other sections use the latest official Census, Queensland Government Statistician's Office Regional Profiles, Australian Early Development Census (AEDC), kindergarten attendance, and Queensland Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) Services Census workforce releases available at the time of update, so reference dates vary across charts and tables.

Definitions used here: ACECQA; NQS; NQF; OSHC; AEDC; ECEC.

Click for more information on the rationale for region selection

The Queensland Early Years Workforce Institute has organised its work across 14 regions that cover the whole state. These regions were designed specifically for the Institute's workforce planning work. They are not the same as government administrative boundaries, local government areas, or other sector maps readers may be familiar with.

Each region groups towns, cities and communities with related workforce and service-system conditions, so regional conversations reflect how the sector operates on the ground. Every part of Queensland is included, including areas that can be underserved or overlooked in statewide initiatives. Regions are also sized so the Institute can meaningfully engage with and support each area.

The regions are not a perfect fit for every dataset. Where data is collected at different geographic levels, such as SA2, SA3, local government area, or Queensland Government statistical regions, it has been mapped as closely as possible to these boundaries and notes are included where differences matter.

A note on the data in this profile: the profiles draw on multiple official sources collected at different points in time. They are integrated planning tools, not a single definitive source of truth, and are strongest when used alongside local knowledge, service experience and stakeholder judgement. Where data may not fully reflect current conditions, such as service quality ratings more than two to three years old or population estimates with a 12-month lag, this is noted directly in the profile.