Size of the Unpaid Child Care Industry in Australia - NOT $345 Billion a year

PWC published a report today saying that they believe the unpaid Child Care Industry was worth $345 Billion a year. Which is a crazy figure. Would make unpaid child care the biggest industry in Australia.


So I called Bullshit and decided to do some analysis. My goal was to calculate what it would cost to put every child (0-5) in long day care, and every child (6-12) in before school and after school care.


First, my assumptions.


1. There are 256 working days in the year. Weekends and Public Holidays would not require child care as it is expected that parents would do the caring.
2. Long Day care costs $100 per child, per day (is a NSW price so likely to be cheaper in other states)
3. Before School/After School care costs $66 a day (is a NSW price so likely to be cheaper in other states
4. Number of children in Australia are accurately counted by the ABS (which is where I am getting my numbers)


Calculations


In Australia, no of kids aged 0-5 = 1,871,741
Cost of day care = $100 a day
Number of working days in year = 256.
Total cost of childcare = $47,916,569,600


In Australia, no of kids aged 6-12 = 2,102,749
Cost of before after school = $66 a day
Number of working days in year = 256
Total cost of before/after school care = $35,528,047,100


Total childcare bill = $83.4 billion. And that includes unpaid and paid childcare!

With the paid childcare industry being around $10 billion a year, means unpaid childcare would be $73.4 billion.


So not quite $345 Billion a year is it. PWC having a shocker. First the Oscars, now this!