Alabama's second-cheapest child care
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Alabama's average annual cost of child care for a toddler and infant — $16,600 — is the second-cheapest in the nation, $2,000 more expensive than Mississippi, and just $100 less than South Dakota.
Why it matters: Child care costs can place a heavy burden on working families, outpacing median rent costs in most places, and climbing nearly 30% across the board from 2020-2024, according to a recent report.
- As Axios' Emily Peck reports, the national average cost of day care tuition for two children (one toddler, one infant), rose to $28,168 in 2024, per advocacy group Child Care Aware.
- That's roughly 35% of the median household annual income in the U.S., per recent Census data. Alabama's $16,600 represents about 27.3% of the state's median household income of $60,660.
Context: The percentages are no less brutal in states with higher incomes, and child care prices are increasing faster than the rate of overall inflation.
- The cost of care for two children in Massachusetts is $47,012 — 44% of the median household income in that state.
- Child care prices rose by 29% overall from 2020-2024, compared to the overall increase in prices of 22%.
Zoom in: According to the Alabama Department of Human Resources (DHR), the Huntsville region has a mean child care cost of $181 per week for kids under 2.5 years old, and $169 for kids 2.5-5.
- So a family in the Huntsville region, defined as a nine-county area of Northwest Alabama, with a toddler older than 2.5 and an infant, would pay a mean cost of $18,200 if paying for all 52 weeks per year.
- That represents a 25.7% share of Huntsville's census-recorded median income of $70,778.