Data and Planning

As the designated service system manager for the Wellington service delivery area, the County of Wellington is responsible for planning and managing child care and early years services that respond to the needs of children and families across the County of Wellington and the City of Guelph.

The Children's Early Years Division produces data and information and accesses a variety of other sources to help plan and manage child care and early years services.

Planning for Child Care and Early Years Services

The Child Care and Early Years Service Plan 2023-2027 includes how we are transitioning licensed child care into a high quality early learning and child care system. There are Child Care and Early Years (including Best Start) service plans from 2000 to now. Please contact us for a copy of older service plans. The Wellington Directed Growth Plan is an addendum to the Child Care and Early Years Service Plan 2023-2027. The Directed Growth Plan presents current licensed child care coverage and population characteristics for each of the municipalities within Wellington-Guelph.

Every municipality in Wellington-Guelph needs child care! The Value of Child Care report outlines the unique features of each municipality in the region, and the level of child care currently available to that community.

For more information about the importance of high-quality licensed child care across Wellington-Guelph, please visit the Children's Early Years webpages below.

Community Planning

Growing Great Generations

Through coordination support for the Growing Great Generations (GGG) Planning Table and the GGG Birth-Six Working Group, Children’s Early Years Division provides staff resources to facilitate on-going collaboration and integrated planning of services for children and youth up to age 18 among community partners.

Growing Great Generations is a collaborative planning initiative of community health, education, and social service organizations and groups who engage in system-level planning to strengthen and align services and supports for all children, youth and their families in the Wellington service delivery area. Action is achieved by leveraging our knowledge and resources to improve services and supports for children, youth and their families.

Growing Great Generations

Birth to Six Working Group is a partnership of organizations making it easier for families to access community-based services and supports for children prenatal to age 6 in Wellington and Guelph.

Birth to Six Working Group

Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Report Card Coalition

Inclusive Early Childhood Service System

Inclusive Early Childhood Service System project - the County of Wellington, Children's Early Years Division is a partner in a Toronto Metropolitan University research study that is asking families of children with disabilities about their experiences with inclusive early childhood services. For the latest updates from the study visit the Inclusive Early Childhood Service System website.

Inclusive Early Childhood Service System

Community Engagement

Data in the Early Years

Licensed Child Care Availability

**Table 1. Number of child care spaces and access rate by age group and municipality.**
Municipality	Children Ages Birth up to 4 Years		Children Ages 4-5 Years		Children Ages 6-12 Years
Municipality	# of Child Care spaces	Access Rate	# of Child Care spaces	Access Rate	# of Child Care spaces	Access Rate
Centre Wellington	214	16.5%	182	24.6%	180	7.0%
Erin	145	34.9%	114	50.7%	150	17.2%
Guelph	2,201	37.5%	843	26.6%	1,249	11.0%
Guelph/Eramosa	152	30.7%	39	13.7%	60	5.1%
Mapleton	15	2.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
Minto	57	12.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
Puslinch	16	7.0%	0	0.0%	0	0.0%
Wellington North	58	8.9%	26	8.8%	75	6.7%
Wellington service delivery area	2,858	28.0%	1,204	22.0%	1,714	8.7%
Note. Access rates refer to the number of licensed child care spaces available for each age group (birth to age 4, ages 4-5, ages 6-12) as a proportion of the number of children who live in each area. Child care spaces include all licensed full-time and part-time spaces. Statistics Canada, 2021 Census of Population; County of Wellington Licensed Child Care database, as of March 31, 2025.

Population Data (Statistics Canada)

**Table 2. Breakdown of population data by age group and municipality.**
Municipality	Municipal Population	Children Ages Birth up to 4 Years		Children Ages 4-5 Years		Children Ages 6-12 Years
Municipality	Municipal Population	Child Population	% of Municipal Population	Child Population	% of Municipal Population	Child Population	% of Municipal Population
Centre Wellington	31,093	1,300	4.2%	740	2.4%	2,560	8.2%
Erin	11,981	415	3.5%	225	1.9%	870	7.3%
Guelph	143,740	5,875	4.1%	3,165	2.2%	11,315	7.9%
Guelph/Eramosa	13,904	495	3.6%	285	2.0%	1,175	8.5%
Mapleton	10,839	755	7.0%	420	3.9%	1,345	12.4%
Minto	9,094	475	5.2%	225	2.5%	845	9.3%
Puslinch	7,944	230	2.9%	120	1.5%	575	7.2%
Wellington North	12,431	655	5.3%	295	2.4%	1,120	9.0%
Wellington service delivery area	241,026	10,200	4.2%	5,475	2.3%	19,805	8.2%

Additional Statistical Data

Early Learning and Child Care Workforce Data