Mapped: Cost of child care around the country
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The cost of child care in the U.S. just keeps climbing — a new report finds that prices rose 29% from 2020 to 2024, outpacing overall inflation.
Why it matters: Rising child care costs put a huge financial strain on families, forcing some parents — typically women — to either ratchet back their working hours or leave the labor force entirely.
- For single parents, the calculus can be even more painful.
- It's also a drag on economic growth overall.
By the numbers: The average annual cost of daycare tuition nationwide for two children — one toddler and one infant — rose to $28,168 last year, according to data from Child Care Aware, an advocacy group.
- That's about 35% of median household annual income in the U.S., based on Census data released in 2024.
Zoom in: The percentages are no less brutal in states with higher incomes.
- The cost of care for two children in Massachusetts is $47,012 — 44% of the median household income in that state.
Zoom out: The U.S. doesn't have publicly funded universal childcare.
- However, the federal government does put money into the system for low-income kids through block grants to the states, as well as Head Start, the decades-old federal program that provides childcare, nutrition assistance and other services to the nation's poorest families
- There were worries that the White House would stop funding Head Start, but the administration has said that won't happen.
Yes, but: President Trump's budget proposals look to keep federal funding levels for child care flat next year — that's effectively a cut given inflation, says Anne Hedgepeth, senior vice president of policy and research at Child Care Aware.
- "Level funding in the current environment is essentially a cut, and that is really concerning," she says.
