Objective To clarify the demand, utilization and supply of early childhood education and care (ECEC) services for children aged 0 to 3 years in Shanghai, in order to provide evidence for giving related suggestions. Methods Departments of Children Health Care in community in health care centers of Shanghai were selected by stratified multi-stage sampling method.The outpatient doctors asked parents of children aged 0 to 3 years who came to the clinic to fill out an online questionnaire.A total of 2 101 parents of children aged 0 to 3 years were recruited and completed the questionnaire survey. Results The demand rate of ECEC services for children aged 0 to 3 years in Shanghai was 44.5% (750/1 686).Over 90% of families preferred to community-based ECEC service and early education services offered by ECEC institutions.And 61.8% (463/750) of families had a maximum affordable cost ≤3 000 yuan per month.The utilization rate of ECEC services for children aged 0 to 3 years in Shanghai was 19.8%.There were 737 institutions in Shanghai that could provide ECEC services, including 204 institutions with notification of ECEC services, 496 kindergartens offered ECEC service for children under 3 years old, and 37 nurseries.Only 21.4% (89/415) of parents reported monthly fee of ECEC institutions ≤3 000 yuan, and 72.8%(89/415) of parents reported fee between 3 001—7 000 yuan per month.The finding showed that the mean fee for the institutions obtained official permission of establishment was 7 536 yuan per month, and only 27.6% of those kind institutions charged ≤3 000 yuan a month per month. Conclusions The utilization and supply of ECEC services have been increased by offering various forms of services in Shanghai.However, the gap still exists between demand and supply, and the cost of ECEC services is higher than what parents expected, suggesting that developing assessable community-based and affordable services may increase the effective supply of ECEC in Shanghai.