MapleCub Data Lab · Province data · 2026
How many licensed daycares are in Quebec?
Quebec is the only province in this dataset whose registry contains no individually licensed family homes whatsoever.
- Computed 2026-08-10
- N = 3,774 Quebec programs
- 20,516 across eight registries
- CC BY 4.0
3,774
licensed programs
9.2
per 1,000 children aged 0–4
547
communities with licensed care
54.3%
of them have exactly one option
The short answer, with everything behind it
As of 2026-08-10, MapleCub counts 3,774 licensed child-care programs in Quebec, and every one of them is a centre: the province licenses no individual family homes. That is 9.2 licensed programs for every 1,000 of the province’s 411,925 children aged 0–4, the sixth-highest rate of the eight provinces that publish a licensing registry. They sit in 547 communities; 297 of those (54.3%) have exactly one licensed program and no second choice, while 36.2% of the province’s licensed programs are in its five largest cities.
Quebec publishes licensed capacity in its open data: 237,634 spaces behind those programs. Quebec’s 2026 price position: $9.65/day. Flat reduced-contribution rate at subsidized (subventionné) providers, fixed in regulation and indexed each January 1. The rate holds at $9.65/day only until December 31, 2026: the ministry's own 2026-2027 budgetary rules set it to rise to $10.60/day on January 1, 2027, a 9.8% increase that ends Quebec's below-$10 status. Non-subsidized care is offset by Quebec's refundable tax credit for childcare expenses. The registry does say which programs take part, which is unusual: 2,788 of 3,774 (73.9%) are subsidized (subventionné) — the reduced-contribution network.4,1,2,3
On inspections, Quebec publishes enforcement outcomes as open data — as extracted on 2026-08-10, 730 administrative penalties issued to 321 facilities, January 2023 – September 2025. Quebec also publishes inspection results one facility at a time. Online, MapleCub has matched 3,370 of Quebec's 3,774 programs to a Google place record (89.3%), and 1,785 of those (53%) carry a rating, averaging 4.53 across 29,768 parent reviews. 1,488 programs (39.4%) have a website recorded in the frozen quarterly snapshot. Because match coverage here is above 60%, the rated share is a statement about Quebec and not only about our queue: even if every unmatched listing turned out to be rated, the province would top out at 60.7%.4,5,6
Source: MapleCub Canadian Childcare Dataset — Aug 2026 · computed 2026-08-10 · N = 3,774 · CSV · Quebec; visible listings only
The numbers
| Measure | Value | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Licensed programs | 3,774 | 18.4% of the 20,516 licensed programs across the eight provinces that publish registries. |
| Centres | 3,774 | 100% of the province’s licensed programs. |
| Licensed family homes | 0 | None: home-based care here runs through coordinating offices and is never licensed as an individual record. |
| Children aged 0–4 | 411,925 | Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0005-01 (July 1, 2025 estimates)9 |
| Programs per 1,000 children | 9.2 | Licensed points of access a parent can look up, not licensed spaces. Registries differ in what they record, so read it alongside the provider mix above. |
| Communities with licensed care | 547 | A community is a normalized city name — lower-cased and trimmed — so registry case variants do not count twice. |
| Communities with exactly one option | 297 (54.3%) | One licence serves the whole community: no comparing, no waitlist hedging, no second choice. |
| Share in the five largest cities | 36.2% | How concentrated the province’s licensed supply is in its biggest municipal markets. |
| Published licensed capacity | 237,634 spaces | Stated in the province’s own machine-readable file, so spaces can be counted here and in only two other provinces.4 |
| Inspection records | 730 penalties, open data | Enforcement outcomes covering 321 facilities, January 2023 – September 2025, as extracted on 2026-08-10.4,5,6 |
| Programs with a website | 1,488 (39.4%) | Harvested conservatively, requiring name agreement, so this undercounts rather than overcounts. |
| Matched by MapleCub to a Google place | 3,370 (89.3%) | Above the 60% floor this Lab requires before it will say anything about a province's own visibility. |
| Rated among the matched | 1,785 of 3,370 (53%) | Average 4.53 out of five across 29,768 parent reviews. Across ALL of Quebec's listings the rated share is 50% — a floor set by our matching, and a ceiling of 60.7% if every listing we never matched turned out to be rated. |
Source: MapleCub Canadian Childcare Dataset — Aug 2026 · computed 2026-08-10 · N = 3,774 · CSV · child population: Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0005-01 (July 1, 2025 estimates)
How Quebec compares on supply
Quebec comes in at 9.2, between New Brunswick’s national high of 27.7 and Ontario’s national low of 6.1. Licensed programs per 1,000 children aged 0–4 is the cleanest cross-province supply signal this dataset supports, and it has to be read with the registry differences in mind: some provinces license each family home individually, others license home care through agencies that never appear as separate records.
Source: MapleCub Canadian Childcare Dataset — Aug 2026 · computed 2026-08-10 · N = 20,516 · CSV · child population: Statistics Canada, Table 17-10-0005-01 (July 1, 2025 estimates)9
What makes Quebec’s registry different
Home-based care exists there in quantity; it simply runs through recognized coordinating offices, so the 3,774 rows published are installations — CPEs and garderies. The empty family-home column is a description of Quebec’s licensing law, not a hole in the data, and it is the single biggest reason Quebec’s programs-per-child rate cannot be compared straight across to British Columbia’s.
Quebec then does two things almost no other province does. It states licensed capacity — 237,634 spaces — and it publishes enforcement penalties as open data: as extracted on 2026-08-10, 730 administrative penalties against 321 installations, January 2023 – September 2025. Those registers are published quarterly; two further registers (October–December 2025 and January–March 2026) have appeared since, so today's registers cover a longer window. Quebec also publishes inspection results per facility on the ministry’s interactive map, so it is one of the few provinces doing both — bulk enforcement data and a per-facility inspection record.
And its price flag is genuine. 2,788 of 3,774 installations (73.9%) are subventionné, the reduced-contribution network; roughly one installation in four sits outside it and charges market rates offset by the refundable tax credit. In most of Canada that distinction is invisible. Here it is a published column.
Source: MapleCub Canadian Childcare Dataset — Aug 2026 · computed 2026-08-10 · N = 3,774 · CSV · registry structure and published fields as documented by each province
Where to go from here
Quebec beyond the arithmetic: the programs themselves, and the rules behind them.
- Licensed daycares in Quebec — browse the 3,774 programs themselves, with age, hours and subsidy filters.
- What child care costs in Quebec — the fee rules and subsidy thresholds behind the price line above, with official sources.
- Quebec’s one-option communities — the 297 places with a single licensed program, named.
- $10-a-day: claimed vs. measured — what the registries can and cannot confirm about the price each province advertises.
- The State of Licensed Child Care in Canada, 2026 — the national report these figures were computed for.
- Montréal child care in numbers — the city snapshot, 658 licensed programs.
Cite as: MapleCub, “Quebec child care by the numbers, 2026,” 2026-08-10, https://www.maplecub.ca/research/quebec-child-care-data. Released under CC BY 4.0. More open data: MapleCub Data Lab.
Sources
Every external claim in this report — every dollar figure, every inspection count, every rule — is cited to the government page it came from. Each entry records the publisher, the document, and the date we last fetched it. Sources were audited 2026-08-11. A dagger (†) marks the 1 sources that need a caveat: either the source has been updated since our figure was computed, or we could not open the page ourselves and have said so. The reason is printed with the entry.
- 1. Gouvernement du Québec (Ministère de la Famille) · Educational childcare rates · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.quebec.ca/en/family-and-support-for-individuals/childhood/childcare-centres/costs
- 2. Éditeur officiel du Québec (LégisQuébec) · Règlement sur la contribution réduite, chapitre S-4.1.1, r. 1 · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/rc/S-4.1.1,%20r.%201
- 3. Ministère de la Famille (Québec) · Règles budgétaires 2026-2027 – Centres de la petite enfance — Faits saillants · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://cdn-contenu.quebec.ca/cdn-contenu/adm/min/famille/publications-adm/Service_de_garde/finance/FS-RB-CPE-2026-2027.pdf
- 4. Ministère de la Famille (Québec), via Données Québec · Liste des centres de la petite enfance (CPE), garderies et bureaux coordonnateurs en fonction · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.donneesquebec.ca/recherche/dataset/liste-des-centres-de-la-petite-enfance-cpe-et-des-garderies-en-fonction
- 5. Ministère de la Famille (Québec) · Registre des pénalités administratives — 1er juillet 2025 au 30 septembre 2025 · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://cdn-contenu.quebec.ca/cdn-contenu/adm/min/famille/publications-adm/Service_de_garde/conformite/24-Registre-PA-WEB-Du-2025-07-01-Au-2025-09-30.pdf
- 6. Gouvernement du Québec (Ministère de la Famille) · Inspection de conformité législative et réglementaire en services de garde — Résultats d'inspection · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.quebec.ca/famille-et-soutien-aux-personnes/enfance/garderies-et-services-de-garde/reseau/responsabilites/conformite-inspections/conformite
- 7. Gouvernement du Québec (Ministère de la Famille) · Documents financiers et reddition de comptes pour les services de garde · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.quebec.ca/famille-et-soutien-aux-personnes/enfance/garderies-et-services-de-garde/reseau/gestion/gestion-finances/documents-financiers-reddition-compte
- 8†. Gouvernement du Québec (Ministère de la Famille) · Inspection de conformité législative et réglementaire en services de garde · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www.quebec.ca/famille-et-soutien-aux-personnes/enfance/garderies-et-services-de-garde/reseau/responsabilites/conformite-inspections/conformite† Source has moved on since our figure was computed. Our number is published as a dated extract, not as the current record.
- 9. Statistics Canada · Table 17-10-0005-01 Population estimates on July 1, by age and gender · fetched 2026-08-11 · https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1710000501