---
title: Childcare Occupancy & Casual Booking Benchmarks | ChildcareNow
description: Occupancy and casual booking rates by state and month for Australian childcare services, July–October 2026, and how the two are linked.
---

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Benchmark report · July–October 2026

# Childcare occupancy and casual booking benchmarks

How full Australian childcare services were each month, how much of their attendance came from casual bookings, and how the two move together.

[Occupancy](https://childcarenow.com.au/childcare-occupancy-benchmarks#occupancy)[Casual booking rate](https://childcarenow.com.au/childcare-occupancy-benchmarks#casual)[Casual rate by occupancy band](https://childcarenow.com.au/childcare-occupancy-benchmarks#bands)[Method](https://childcarenow.com.au/childcare-occupancy-benchmarks#method)

67.6%

National occupancy, Jul–Oct

3.1%

of bookings were casual

1,000+

services in the sample

4.7% → 2.5%

casual share, below 50% vs above 90% full

01 · Occupancy

## How full were services?

NSW ran fullest at 73.6% over the four months, while WA trailed at 60.6%.

### Occupancy by month and state

Bookings ÷ licensed capacity, totalled across every service in the state. Hover a point for its value.

- NSW
- QLD
- SA
- VIC
- WA
- National

### Occupancy by state

Jul–Oct is the four-month rate, not an average of the monthly figures.

| State | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Jul–Oct |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NSW | 70.3% | 73.5% | 75.4% | 75.3% | 73.6% |
| QLD | 69.3% | 72.0% | 70.9% | 71.0% | 70.8% |
| SA | 65.5% | 64.7% | 63.3% | 61.9% | 63.8% |
| VIC | 65.3% | 65.7% | 67.4% | 63.7% | 65.5% |
| WA | 60.1% | 60.5% | 61.6% | 60.1% | 60.6% |
| National | 66.8% | 68.3% | 68.4% | 67.1% | 67.6% |

02 · Casual booking rate

## How much attendance was casual?

WA leaned hardest on casual bookings at 5.3% of all bookings; NSW was lowest at 2.5%.

### Casual booking rate by month and state

Casual bookings ÷ all bookings. Hover a point for its value.

- NSW
- QLD
- SA
- VIC
- WA
- National

### Casual booking rate by state

Jul–Oct is the four-month rate, not an average of the monthly figures.

| State | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Jul–Oct |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| NSW | 2.8% | 2.2% | 2.3% | 2.9% | 2.5% |
| QLD | 2.5% | 2.4% | 2.8% | 2.7% | 2.6% |
| SA | 4.5% | 4.0% | 4.2% | 4.7% | 4.4% |
| VIC | 3.6% | 2.6% | 3.0% | 2.9% | 3.0% |
| WA | 5.9% | 4.7% | 5.0% | 5.5% | 5.3% |
| National | 3.3% | 2.7% | 3.1% | 3.1% | 3.1% |

03 · Occupancy vs casual

## The fuller the service, the smaller the casual share

Each service-month is placed in a band by its own occupancy. Services with spare places fill more of them casually; full services have little room left to offer.

### Casual booking rate by occupancy band

July–October 2026, all states. Hover a bar for the number of service-months.

4.7%

casual share at services under 50% full

2.5%

casual share at services over 90% full

What it means

The link is real but weak. Occupancy explains only a small part of why casual rates differ, so state and service mix matter too.

04 · Method

## How these figures are worked out

- Occupancy = bookings ÷ licensed capacity. Casual booking rate = casual bookings ÷ all bookings. Both are totals across services, so larger services carry more weight.
- National includes every state and territory, ACT, NT and TAS among them. Those three are not charted separately because their samples are small.
- Service-months with a licensed capacity of zero are left out of occupancy and the bands, but still count toward the casual rate.
- Data covers 3,444 service-month records from 1,000+ services, July to October 2026.

Turn spare places into revenue

## Fill last-minute vacancies with casual bookings

Our free eBook walks through three proven strategies to lift occupancy and add revenue straight to your bottom line.

[Read the free eBook](https://childcarenow.com.au/casual-bookings-ebook?hsLang=en-au) [Get a Demo →](https://childcarenow.com.au/childcare-occupancy-benchmarks#demoPopup)

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