The US and the High Price of Child Care: An Examination of a Broken System
Child Care Aware® of America’s interactive Price of Child Care map allows you to actively engage and examine the average price and affordability of child care across states. This map shows the range in child care affordability for families with an infant in center-based child care. Please note: affordability percentages have been rounded to the nearest whole number. This year’s map includes county-level data for 11 states (outlined in orange): Alaska, Delaware, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
Map Features:
- This map is best viewed on a computer, not on a mobile device. If viewing on a mobile device, press the “home” button on the map to explore.
- We have added updated printable fact sheets with child care price and affordability data to each state. You can view these by clicking “More state-level price data” in each state pop-up.
- Alaska and Hawaii can be viewed in smaller map windows below the continental US map. Click on the arrow in the right-hand corner of the pop-up to view the child care price and affordability for AK and HI.
- You can view the county price maps by clicking on one of the states outlined in orange, then clicking “County Price Map” in the pop-up.
- You can view the legend by clicking on the arrow in the upper left-hand corner of the map.
- You can zoom in by clicking on the “+” and “-” signs in the upper left-hand corner of the map.
Click on this link for detailed instructions about using the map.
Why is this important?
More than 12 million children younger than age five are in some form of child care in the United States. The US and the High Price of Child Care: An Examination of a Broken Systemprovides a review of how child care is an issue for all of us and shares our policy recommendations for supporting families and child care providers. Also featured are:
- An overview of the child care ecosystem and how each member is affected by unaffordable child care
- How Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies work with each member of the child care ecosystem in order to develop ways to fix the broken child care system
- Brief case studies – including an overview of a cost modeling study done for high-quality child care centers in Louisiana and an examination of income eligibility thresholds for families seeking child care subsidies in the Seattle metropolitan area
- Educational and advocacy tools to help your state or community move the conversation about child care into action.
Read the report and access more resources below!
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