The research on how children do in their profile scores at the end of their reception year, published by the Department for Education, is based on drawing together the profile data on the EYFS since it was first collected nationally.
The study, 'Achievement of Children in the Early Years Foundation Stage,' concluded that children have continued to improve in their profile scores. 'Nationally, there has been a persistent increase in performance on the Early Years Foundation Stage Profile,' the report said.
The proportion of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development increased from 45 per cent in 2006 to 52 per cent in 2009.
The inequality gap between children in the EYFSP has also narrowed, from 38 per cent in 2006 to 34 per cent in 2009.
However, the research reveals that children's achievement in the EYFS and inequality is 'spread unevenly' throughout England.
A high proportion of children doing well live in the south-west of England, according to local authority results, where there is also a high proportion of local authorities with low inequality between the lowest scoring children and their peers.
Children living in the most deprived local authority areas have 'marginally lower rates of achievement of a good level of development', the report said.
However, the study also said that 'deprivation and low achievement are overlapping, but are not synonymous'.
