What child care costs

The Department of Labor collects childcare prices county by county and publishes a state summary. It is the only federal source for what care actually costs, and the table below is that source, unedited.

Two things to hold in mind while reading it. The figures are 2022, which is the most recent year published, and prices have risen since. And six jurisdictions are missing entirely, because too few of their counties reported to support an estimate. They are listed as not published rather than quietly left out.

These are medians for one child at the ordinary market rate. Half of the places in that state cost more. What any particular provider charges is set by that provider, and we do not hold it.

The price falls with every age band, and it falls for one reason. Licensed ratios loosen as children get older, so the same room and the same building need fewer adults per child, and the wage bill per child drops with them.

That is why the gap is so consistent. It shows up in almost every state that publishes figures, regardless of how expensive that state is overall, because the ratio rule that drives it is a licensing rule rather than a market one.

The figures below are the middle of the published state medians. They describe a typical state rather than a typical family, since a small state counts the same as a large one, and they are there to show the shape of the gradient rather than to price your own place.

This works out from the 2022 federal medians and nothing else. It is a benchmark to check a quote against, not a quote. No provider has agreed to this price and we are not quoting on anyone's behalf.

The share-of-income figure is worth knowing because it is the number policy uses. Until July 2026 the federal government held subsidised families to a co-payment of no more than 7 percent of income, which is a useful yardstick for what affordable was taken to mean even though the requirement is now gone.

If you receive child care assistance through your state's CCDF programme, you usually still pay something. That share is your co-payment, and it is set by a sliding scale your state writes.

In 2024 the federal government required every state to hold that co-payment to no more than 7 percent of family income. A rule published in May 2026 removed the requirement. States are now told only that co-payments must be affordable and must not be a barrier to families getting assistance, with no percentage attached.

This matters less than it sounds for most families, because the majority of states had already chosen a limit at or below 7 percent and the federal change does not force them to raise it. It matters a great deal if your state now revisits its scale. The number to ask your caseworker for is your state's current sliding-scale limit, not the federal one, because the federal one no longer exists.

Child care is a wage business. The single largest input is the number of adults who must be in the room, and that number is not a management choice. It is a licensing rule, written by your state, and it tightens sharply for the youngest children.

That is why an infant place costs more than a preschool place at the same centre, under the same roof, with the same overheads. A room of babies needs more adults per child than a room of four-year-olds does. The federal government does not set that ratio for ordinary daycare, so the binding number is your state's.

The one ratio published at federal level applies to Head Start programmes. It is quoted below as a yardstick for what a well-staffed room for the under-threes looks like, not as a national standard, because it does not bind anyone else.

After staffing, the things that move the price are the ones you would expect of any local service: rent and property costs, local wages, and whether the programme carries accreditation or a quality rating that it has to staff and document for.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks day care and preschool prices as a component of the Consumer Price Index. It is the closest thing to an official measure of what is happening to child care prices nationally, and unlike a survey of advertised rates it is collected on a consistent basis every month.

The index has risen in every full year of the last decade. It is a national urban average, so it will not match your invoice, and it measures change rather than level. It cannot tell you what a place costs in your town. It can tell you, without argument, that the direction has been one way.

The largest single lever is your state's CCDF child care assistance, which pays part of the bill directly to your provider and leaves you a co-payment set by your income. Income limits differ by state and by family size, and several states set them well above the federal ceiling.

Head Start and Early Head Start are free to families who qualify, and eligibility is based on income and circumstance rather than on a waiting list you have to buy your way up.

Two tax routes work for families well above subsidy limits: the Child and Dependent Care Credit, claimed on your return, and a Dependent Care FSA if your employer offers one. They interact, so claiming one changes what the other is worth.

Each of these has its own eligibility rules, its own income test, and its own application. We keep the numbers for all of them, per state, on the assistance guide rather than repeating them here where they would fall out of date twice over.