Daycare Cost by County: What Full-Time Child Care Costs Where You Live

Daycare cost in your county

Pick an age and a setting, then find your county. You get a year of full-time care in today's dollars, the month, the weekly price DOL recorded, and how much of the county's median family income it takes. 2,875 of 3,143 counties have at least one price.

What a year costs at each age

Babies cost the most because state licensing rules allow fewer infants per caregiver than older children. Prices fall each year after that. A home daycare (a licensed provider caring for a small group in their own home) runs cheaper than a center at every age; for an infant, the middle county gap is $2,166 a year.

The most expensive counties

Infant care at a center, a year in September 2026 dollars, counties of 100,000 people or more:

The cheapest

Worked example: two kids in Riverside County

Riverside County, California, ranks 14th of California's 58 priced counties, well above the US middle. DOL's 2022 median for a center was $405 a week for an infant and $189 for a preschooler1.

Our math: weekly price × 52, times the change in the BLS day care and preschool index from 2022 to September 2026 (23%)3. The income share uses 2022 prices and 2022 income, so inflation does not change it.

One baby alone is 22% of that income. Moving the baby to a home daycare saves $11,126 a year, which is the single biggest lever most Riverside families have.

The 7% line almost no county meets

For years the federal benchmark for affordable child care was 7% of family income. A 2024 rule made it a hard cap on what states could charge families in the Child Care and Development Fund subsidy program5. That cap was rescinded by a rule that took effect July 13, 20266.

Measured against it, infant care at a center tops 7% of the median family income in 2,738 of the 2,833 counties with a price, and tops 15% in 5401. The middle county is at 12%.

Daycare prices in every state

DOL's own state medians, weighted by where children live2. Weekly prices for full-time care in the year DOL measured (2022 unless noted); on a phone the toddler and preschool columns are hidden, and the county calculator above has them. The last column is a year of infant center care in September 2026 dollars, our math3. District of Columbia is the most expensive state at $31,422; Mississippi is the cheapest at $7,611.

Indiana and New Mexico are not in DOL's database: Indiana only reports subsidy reimbursement rates, and New Mexico uses a cost-based method with no price data4. Arkansas, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Vermont have no 2022 state prices, so their rows use the latest year DOL has (shown). 176 counties in 6 states with no 2022 price use their 2020 or 2021 price, shown in the calculator. Both are brought up to today with the same index.

Before you sign a daycare contract

• Ask what the weekly price covers. These are full-time prices. Registration fees, supply fees, meals and late pickup charges are often extra.
• Price a home daycare too. In most counties it is cheaper at every age, and the gap is largest for babies.
• Ask about the next birthday. Prices step down as a child moves from the infant room to toddler and preschool rooms, so the first year is the most expensive.
• Check your state's subsidy program. Every state runs one with federal Child Care and Development Fund money; the income limits and family share are set by the state.

How we got these numbers

The Women's Bureau of the US Department of Labor builds the National Database of Childcare Prices from each state's child care market rate survey: the prices providers actually charge, by county, age group and setting14. Its latest release runs from 2008 to 2022. We used each county's 2022 median full-time weekly price; where a county had no 2022 price we used its 2020 or 2021 price. To bring prices to today we multiplied by the change in the BLS consumer price index for day care and preschool from the year's average to September 20263. That index is national, so it will not catch a county whose prices rose faster or slower. "Middle county" is the median of counties, not weighted by population; the "half of Americans" figure is weighted by county population. Income shares use DOL's own county median family income for the same year as the price. Source files: the DOL childcare prices page.