An analysis by KindiCare, an app that compares the quality and cost of daycare centres, found the state had failed to keep up with the national quality standard.

And of the 10 worst-performing suburbs for childcare in Tasmania, regional destinations made up more than half of the list.

These suburbs included Bellerive, in Clarence, Kingston, on the outskirts of Hobart, South Launceston and Bridgewater, in Brighton.

KindiCare founder Benjamin Balk said the state’s poor performance was largely due to the location and size in comparison to some of the major cities in Australia.

“Tasmania being a less densely populated state is more like a regional area in other states such as NSW,” he said.

“As a result, there tends to be more single owner operators as opposed to large chains, as well as community not for profit centres, which can tend to perform lower than the average quality achieved by some of the larger childcare groups.”

Glenorchy, Sandy Bay and Howrah topped the list of best-performing childcare locations.

Using Federal Government quality ratings combined with user rankings, KindiCare assessed Australia’s 16,552 child care services between May and November this year.

KindiCare’s rating system took into account the quality of care and value for money offered by the early learning services.

“You’ve got just as much chance of a poor performing centre being in the heart of the city as it being in a regional area,” Mr Balk said of the overall results, crunched for the first time.

While Tasmania was the worst-performing state overall, behind the NT and Western Australia, Queensland’s Thursday Island was the worst performing location nationally.

“What the top and bottom centres highlight overall is that it is important for every family to look in their local area to see how quality compares against the national benchmarks,” Mr Balk said.

“And also how centres in an area compare against each other when considering suitability and value for money.

“Whilst not black and white, regional areas do tend to perform worse than metro areas, particularly in Queensland, Victoria and NSW where participation in early learning is the highest.”

Across the country, family day care services continued to perform lower than all other early childhood education and care types.

Mr Balk said it came largely down to the service being under resourced compared to other parts of the sector.

“If you look at the average childcare centre, you can see centres have anywhere from 28 to 180 children in a centre and so they tend to be more structured,” he said.

“When it comes to family daycare, they tend to operate under a different structure where individual educators might have four children in their home that they’re looking after.

“So there’s not the same sort of structure and rigour as what you see in centre based care, which is why it tends to underperform.”

TAS BEST PERFORMING SUBURBS FOR CHILDCARE

1. Glenorchy

2. Sandy Bay

3. Howrah

4. Ulverstone

5. Launceston

6. Hobart

7. Newnham

8. South Hobart

9. Burnie

10. Lindisfarne

TAS WORST PERFORMING SUBURBS FOR CHILDCARE

1. Bellerive

2. Kingston

3. South Launceston

4. Bridgewater

5. New Town

6. Moonah

7. Somerset

8. Smithton

9. Blackmans Bay

10. Margate