2024 AEDC Data Is Out! Developmental Vulnerability for ACT Children Is Rising!

The 2024 Australian Early Development Census (AEDC) results and national report were released today (Friday 13 June 2025). The AEDC is a national measure of how children have developed by the time they start their first year of full-time school. It provides important insights that help identify strategies to improve life outcomes for children. 2024 was the sixth cycle of the AEDC data collection.

Key 2024 AEDC findings for the ACT show that:

"The percentage of ACT children starting school with developmental vulnerabilities is higher than nationally"

* In 2024, 28.1% of children in the ACT were developmentally vulnerable on one or more domains, greater than the national rate of 23.5%.

*14.9% of ACT children were developmentally vulnerable on two or more domains, higher than the national figure of 12.5%.

*The percentage of ACT children whose development is on track on all five AEDC domains has decreased since 2021 (from 47.3% in 2021 to 43.8% in 2024).

*A lower percentage of children are on track on five domains in the ACT than nationally (AUS: 52.9%, ACT: 43.8%).

Developmental vulnerability for ACT children is rising

*Developmental vulnerability in the ACT has been increasing significantly across the AEDC cycles.

*There were increases in developmental vulnerability across four of the five AEDC domains in the ACT, with the largest increase in the communication skills and general knowledge domain.

*Encouragingly, there was a significant decrease in the percentage of ACT children vulnerable in the social competence domain (decreased from 12.2% in 2021 to 11.5% in 2024).

More ACT children need further assessment than ever before

*There continues to be a growing number and percentage of ACT children needing further assessment.

*In 2024, 1,129 ACT kindergarten children were reported as needing further assessment, or approximately five children in every ACT kindergarten class (23.0%).

The AEDC results help schools, communities, governments, early childhood professionals and researchers identify what is working well and what needs to change to better support children and their families. The 2024 ACT results highlight the need to strengthen early childhood supports and promote early child development.

More detailed results including the national report are available at Australian Early Development Census (aedc.gov.au). You can review suburb, region and state/territory level results and access community profiles for individual ACT regions (e.g. Belconnen, Gungahlin, Tuggeranong etc.).

The Government is preparing an ACT 2024 AEDC report, to be released later in the year. Presentations on ACT’s 2024 results will be held for government and community sectors so that together we can support responses that promote early child development. Watch this space. 

Contact the ACT Government to book a session to explore the AEDC data and opportunities to improve early childhood development in the at [email protected].