40+ Child Care Statistics & Trends in the U.S.

Uncover the latest insights into child care in the US with our 40+ essential statistics, providing a detailed look at the state of child care services, accessibility, and family dynamics.

The Rising Cost of Child Care
Work & Family Balance
Enrollment in Child Care Centers
Participation of Mothers in the Workforce
High-quality Care & Developmental Wellbeing
The Financial Strain on Families

Care is an essential factor in the child’s physical and emotional development, especially during the formative years. The environment in which the child is nurtured creates positive and negative predispositions in later adulthood. Therefore, we collected the most prominent data on the subject:

The Rising Cost of Child Care

The average annual cost to have two children in a child care center is about $18,000 (Americanprogress, 2016)
The U.S. has the third-highest child care costs paid by families out of OECD countries (Americanprogress, 2016)
Over the past 20 years, the cost of child care has almost doubled, while wages have remained stagnant (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2020)
The average annual cost of full-time care for an infant can range from $4,863 in Mississippi, $16,430 in Massachusetts (Singlemotherguide, 2016)
For 63% of parents, childcare has become more expensive over the past year. (Care, 2022)
Half of parents spend more than 20% of their household income on childcare, whereas 72% spend 10% or more. (Care, 2022)
Because 59% of parents are concerned about covering the costs, 31% have taken a second job, 26% reduced their hours, 25% changed jobs, and 21% left the workforce. (Care, 2022)
In the US, the annual cost of childcare is more than college tuition. (World Population Review, 2023)
The five states with the highest childcare costs are the District of Columbia ($24,243), Massachusetts ($20,913), California ($16,945), Minnesota ($16,087), and Connecticut ($15,591). (World Population Review, 2023)
Childcare isn’t costly only for American families. In fact, Irish, Cypriot, Czech, and UK families spend a third of their income on childcare. (Statista, 2022)

Work & Family Balance

Only half of the respondents (48%) said they feel like their employer cares about their child care needs (Care, 2019)
26% of respondents reported switching from full-time to part-time jobs because of child care (Care, 2019)
Only 7% of employers provide child care at work or near the workplace (SHRM, 2017)
61% of U.S. employers provided child care assistance to employees (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015)
2 million parents had to make career sacrifices due to not being able to find proper child care (Americanprogress, 2017)
Due to childcare issues, 64% of parents have been late to work or left work early, 58% missed a full day, 53% have been distracted, and 44% missed part of their work shift. (Strong Nation, 2023)
Because of childcare problems, 44% had to reduce their regular work hours, 37% had their pay or hours reduced, and 33% changed to part-time work. (Strong Nation, 2023)
One-third of parents had to reject a job offer or work-related training because of childcare issues. (Strong Nation, 2023)
30% of parents have been reprimanded by their supervisor, 26% quit their jobs, 23% have been let go or fired, and 17% have been demoted due to childcare problems. (Strong Nation, 2023)

Enrollment in Child Care Centers

Around 8.74 million children are enrolled in kindergarten or nursery (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018)
3.53 million children are enrolled in public kindergartens in the United States (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018)
The number of children enrolled in private kindergartens is around 37,900 (U.S. Census Bureau, 2018)
The number of children (64.7%) enrolled in full-time kindergarten or nursery has doubled in the last 40 years (U.S. Census Bureau, 2019)
By 2021 it is estimated that there will be 856,238 daycare operators in the United States (Statista, 2019)
In 2017, the largest for-profit child care organization was KinderCare Education, with the capacity of over 200,000 children (Statista, 2019)

In 2021, 12.3 million children needed a spot at a childcare center, but only 8.7 million available slots in licensed centers. (Childcare Aware, 2021)
Between 2019 and 2021, around 9000 childcare centers and 7,000 FCC programs had to close. (Childcare Aware, 2022)

Participation of Mothers in the Workforce

The cost of childcare resulted in a 13% drop in the employment of mothers with children under 5 (SWET, 2018)
U.S. women’s labor participation ranks 17 out of 22 OECD countries, and one-third of the decline is because of child care (American Economic Review, 2013)
The annual cost of infant care averaged over 40% of the state median income for a single mother (Singlemotherguide, 2016)
62% of mothers and 36% of fathers said that they had to quit or switch jobs because of child care (Washingtonpost, 2015)
In 2021, there were 72.5 million women in the workforce, about 2 million fewer compared to 2019. (Childcare Aware, 2022)

High-quality Care & Developmental Wellbeing

Less than 10% of child care programs nationally are considered high-quality (Americanprogress, 2016)
Children who experienced higher quality care were more cooperative and compliant and less aggressive and disobedient (National Institutes of Health, 2006)
Children in high-quality care scored better on tests of language, memory, and other skills, compared to children in lower-quality care and children of stay-at-home mothers (Wikipedia)
Higher-quality care has low adult-to-child ratio, smaller group sizes, and the providers of child care have better education and training (National Institutes of Health, 2006)
Children in smaller child care groups are less likely to contract upper respiratory and stomach illnesses (National Institutes of Health, 2006)

The Financial Strain on Families

Families in the United States lose out on $20.6 billion in wages due to a lack of child care (Americanprogress, 2016)
36% of parents reported that the cost of child care had caused relationship tension, and 39% say it has affected family planning (Care, 2019)
39% of parents said the high cost of care has made them wait longer to have children, or made them have fewer children (Care, 2019)
70% of parents said the cost of child care cost surprised them the most upon starting a family (Care, 2019)
Three-quarters of parents say that child care is expensive in their area, and a little more than half say that it’s hard to find (WashingtonPost, 2015)

The childcare crisis in the US cost $122 billion in lost earnings, revenue, and productivity. (Strong Nation, 2023)
Families lose around $78 billion annually in lost earnings and job-hunting expenses. (Strong Nation, 2023)
On average, parents lose about $5,520 because of insufficient care for children under three years old. (Strong Nation, 2023)

Written by Shortlister Editorial Team

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