The CareforKids.com.au annual child care and workforce participation survey received 2,494 responses – a record number so far in our eighth year of running the survey. Many thanks to everyone who took the time to give us their feedback.

Over the course of the next few weeks we'll be raking over the ups and downs of being a parent when it comes to child care, but this week we start with 'how long?', 'how much?' and 'Is it worth it?'

It will come as no surprise to most of you that the cost of child care is increasing while the wait for that elusive space gets longer and more expensive. 87% of parents have their children in child care due to work.

The Facts:
44% of working parents with pre school children have kids in child care for over eight hours per day; a further 39% between 7-8 hours per day and kids are most likely to be in care for three days a week.

WA and QLD parents are most likely to have their children in child care for 5 days a week (42%) and for the longest number of hours, with over half their kids being in care for over 8 hours a day.

The highest unmet need for child care places is in NSW and VIC, where parents need to use waiting lists in far greater numbers than the rest of the country. Most likely to find the child care they wanted are parents living in SA , WA and QLD and least likely in NSW and VIC.

Most parents (41%) are likely to pay less than $20 per waiting list on average, but QLD parents pay more for waiting lists than NSW with 24% paying between $40 and $60 compared to only 17% of NSW parents in that fee range.

The most likely search time to find suitable child care is one to two months (36%) but over 20% of NSW parents took over 12 months to find child care, compared to just 7% in QLD.

Child care centres are still the most popular form of child care at 77% marginally down from last year. Use of Grandparents is also slightly down at 17% but nannies are up by at 14%, compared to 10% in 2012. The highest users of nannies are those living in WA at 22% compared to 16% in NSW.

Use of Family Day care is the same at 11% with the biggest users of this type of care being in SA and QLD (22% compared to 8% and 4% in NSW and VIC respectively).

65% of parents would prefer to use a referral from a friend or family member to hire a babysitter, nanny or au pair; 31% would us an agency and 25% using an agency-based website, but only 13% would use a non-vetted DIY website.

While 65% of parents are extremely happy with the child care they eventually got, the cost is still increasing. SA parents pay the least amount in child care with 24% paying under $150 compared to just 11% of NSW and VIC based parents; SA parents are most likely (40%) to be paying $150-$200 per week, whereas over half (54%) of parents in NSW and VIC are paying over $300 per week in child care – up by 3% across the country from last year.

Almost three quarters (72%) of parents think that penalties for arriving after hours are fair, 77% think that they should not be paying for child care over public holidays when the centres are closed.

40% of mums surveyed are working full time and 41% part time and although 79% of working mums said they returned to work for financial necessity, 26% said that work is not actually financially viable – up 2% from last year and 31% say that being back at work has brought more financial complications.

The financial complexity of juggling child care vs income is most keenly felt in SA (41% ) and QLD (36%) compared to 30% in NSW and VIC and over one in 10 mums haven't gone back to work at all due to it not being financially viable.

We look at the quality of care you're getting for your hard earned cash and also review how helpful employers are really being when it comes to flexibility and general support for working parents.

View Part 1 – How long, how much and is it worth it?

View Part 2 – Quality & employer support for working parents

View Part 3 – Returning to work

View Part 4 – National Quality Framework

Oh and just a reminder for those who completed the survey you get 25% off Doodlebug's amazing eco-friendly clothing for babies and kids click here and use the promo code CAREFORKIDS to redeem.