How Much Does Daycare Cost?

Based on the U.S. Department of Labor's most recent National Database of Childcare Prices update (November 2024, covering 2019–2022), median yearly daycare for one child ran from $6,552 to $15,600 in 2022 dollars, depending on three things: the kind of care, your child's age, and the size of your county. The most expensive single county on record was Arlington, VA at $27,220 for infant center-based care.

The most granular county-size breakdown DOL publishes outside its full data file is the original 2018 panel, shown below in 2022 inflation-adjusted dollars. The 2019–2022 update narrowed the range overall but the relative pattern — bigger counties cost more, infants cost more, centers cost more — held:

Three patterns hold across nearly every state:

• Center-based care typically costs 30–55% more than home-based family child care, with the gap widest in large counties.
• Infant care averages about 30% more than preschool-age care, because state ratios require more adults per child.
• Very large counties cost roughly 2× small counties for the same kind of care.

The 2024 federal Child Care and Development Fund Final Rule caps subsidy families' copays at 7% of family income — a figure HHS chose because Census data showed it was the historical average families paid for child care. Few families paying market rate hit that mark today.

For families using paid child care at their county's median income in 2022, one child took:

• 8.9% of family income at the low end (small counties, less-expensive care types).
• 16.0% of family income for infant center-based care in very large counties — the national high.
• 47% for infant center care in the Bronx, NY — the highest documented county in the earlier 2018 federal data; the 2019–2022 update has not republished a county-by-county affordability ranking, but the Bronx continues to sit at the top of every comparable national affordability map.

About 29% of families with kids under 6 have at least two children in that age range. For those families, daycare typically becomes the single largest household expense — bigger than rent, bigger than groceries, often bigger than the mortgage.

In their 2021 affordability analysis, Child Care Aware of America compared two-child daycare cost (one infant plus one 4-year-old) to average housing costs in each state. The shape of the comparison has not improved in the years since:

• Two-child daycare cost more than annualized rent in DC and all 49 states with available data.
• It cost more than annualized mortgage payments in 45 states.
• The five states where two-child daycare did not exceed average mortgage costs were Alaska, Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and South Dakota.

This is the part of the math most family budgets are not set up to absorb. It is also the reason many parents — especially second earners and single parents — leave the workforce temporarily rather than work to subsidize a daycare bill.

Daycare costs what it costs because child care is a deeply labor-intensive service. 60–80% of a provider's operating costs go to compensation for the teachers and caregivers actually in the classroom. Even at those margins, the people doing the work earn a median wage of $13.22 an hour — one of the lowest-paid occupations in the U.S.

Three pieces explain the math:

1. Ratios are set by safety, not preference. State licensing typically requires one adult per 3–6 infants, depending on the state. Each ratio is a paycheck. There is no margin in the model that can be trimmed without lowering ratios — and lowering ratios means fewer adults watching babies.
2. Worker pay is already at the floor. Pushing tuition down further would push wages below the poverty line. Child care workers are already more than twice as likely to live in poverty as workers in other sectors. The pricing isn't sustainable from the worker side either.
3. The most expensive years are the least subsidized. U.S. public spending on care for children under 3 averages less than $500 per child per year. For ages 3–4, it's $2,800/child. For elementary-aged kids in public school, it's $12,800/child. The gap parents pay out of pocket is widest exactly when full-time care is most necessary.

You can't shop your way to $4,000/year child care. But there are five real levers that change what your family pays for the care you actually get.

If you qualify for child care subsidy, the next question is whether a provider near you will actually accept it. Federal data from January 2025 shows that what each state's subsidy reimburses providers varies enormously — and that shapes which providers are willing to take subsidy families at all.

The federal Office of Child Care considers any state below 50% of market rate to be out of compliance with the CCDF "equal access" requirement, but enforcement is gradual. The practical takeaway: "I qualify for subsidy" and "a provider in my neighborhood will accept it" are two separate questions. Check both before you plan around a subsidy.

Once you know what to expect on price, you can start looking at actual providers. Childery's state directories list every licensed daycare in each state, with the quality rating, license status, capacity, and direct contact information.

• Alabama
• Alaska
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• Delaware
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Georgia
• Hawaii
• Idaho
• Illinois
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