--- title: "24135 – Early Foundation (Childcare)" url: https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/series-24135/ date: 2026-01-16 modified: 2026-10-12 lang: en author: "" description: "APN Codex Node 2413524100 Series — Social Capital, Meridian BranchCertified Early Foundation (Childcare) Localities (N)5,416 National Mean47.70 Std Dev20.19 Range0.00–95.70 Statistics on this page describe the 5,416 scored localities with..." word_count: 485 --- # 24135 – Early Foundation (Childcare) APN Codex Node 2413524100 Series — Social Capital, Meridian BranchCertified ### Early Foundation (Childcare) Localities (N)5,416 National Mean47.70 Std Dev20.19 Range0.00–95.70 Statistics on this page describe the 5,416 scored localities with more than 200 residents. 5,526 localities are scored in all. 1What It Measures One of five Meridian components. Measures early-childhood/childcare foundation from three signals: ACECQA average National Quality Framework (NQF) rating, preschool attendance % (population 0–4), and female labour-force-participation rate (a childcare-access proxy). **Source:** ACECQA National Registers (18,166 active services) joined to suburbs by normalised name match; 2021 Census GCP SAL (G01/G15/G46B). 2Data & Coverage Notes NQF rating scale and thin coverage, disclosed The NQF numeric encoding scale used here (Excellent=100, Exceeding NQS=80, Meeting NQS=55, Working Towards NQS=25, Significant Improvement Required=0) is applied as shown. This is the thinnest-coverage node in the Meridian branch (5,526 of ~15,300 SALs, ~36%) — an honest reflection of a genuinely thin data source (ACECQA services only exist where childcare provision exists), not a defect. 3National Distribution N5,416 Mean47.70 Std Dev20.19 Min0.00 Max95.70 Distribution 24135 Score — 5,416 Localities Over 200 Residents 4Pillar Alignment and Geography **Alignment with the pillar.** Across the 5,416 localities with more than 200 residents scored on both, this component and APN Meridian™ (Education Value Index) (24130) have a correlation of **0.72**, on a scale where 1 means the two scores move together exactly and 0 means they are unrelated. The two are moderately aligned: a locality that scores high on this component tends to score above average on Meridian, with many exceptions. This component is one of the pillar’s five inputs, so part of that alignment is built into the pillar itself. By State and Territory Average 24135 Score by State and Territory Each bar is the average score of the jurisdiction’s localities with more than 200 residents, with every locality counted equally regardless of population; the dashed line marks the national mean of 47.70. The Australian Capital Territory averages highest at 64.3 (98 localities) and Tasmania lowest at 37.1 (212). Victoria averages 56.9, New South Wales 51.9, South Australia 44.1, Queensland 42.2, Western Australia 38.7 and the Northern Territory 37.2. Other Territories (3 localities) are not shown. 5Other Components The other four components of APN Meridian™ (Education Value Index) (24130). [Node 24131 →School Density & Sector MixReads access to schooling options: school density per school-age resident and the non-government school share.](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/24131-school-density-sector-mix/) [Node 24132 →Tertiary Node & KnowledgeReads engagement with the tertiary and knowledge economy through enrolment, proximity to higher-education providers and vocational activity.](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/series-24132/) [Node 24133 →Human Capital DepthReads the current stock of educational attainment and skilled occupations among residents.](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/series-24133/) [Node 24134 →Advancement VelocityReads the change in household income and degree-level attainment between successive Censuses.](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/24134-advancement-velocity/) [Parent branch →24130 — APN Meridian™ (Education Value Index)](https://australianproperty.network/apn-codex/series-20000/series-24000/series-24100/series-24130/) 6Certification APN Codex Node 24135 — Certified, v0.1 - NQF numeric encoding scale applied as proposed - Preschool attendance % is a Census-available proxy for formal early-learning attendance, not a direct long-day-care/family-day-care measure