Methods: Child Care Aware® of America’s Price and Supply Report
Data Collection
Survey: In January 2026, Child Care Aware® of America (CCAoA) surveyed state Child Care Resource and Referral (CCR&R) agencies and state agencies responsible for administering the federally-funded Child Care and Development Block Grant. The survey covered the following child care topics: prices, supply, capacity, and quality (quality rating and improvement system /QRIS data).
Respondents were asked to complete the survey based on their state’s data as of December 2025. However, some states were only able to report data from early 2026. Therefore, all data included in this report represent a period between December 2025 and March 2026. For ease of description, we refer to the survey data as “2025 data” throughout the report.
Public data: Some states do not collect data in the format CCAoA asks on the survey. For these states, data are gathered from public databases, as available. In 2025, public data were used for: Colorado, Florida, Montana, Texas, and Wyoming.
CHILD CARE PRICE AND AFFORDABILITY ANALYSES
Data Used in Analyses
The data used to calculate the national average annual price of child care and child care affordability came from the methods described above. The survey asked respondents to report annual child care prices for infants, toddlers, 4-year-olds, and school-aged children, for both licensed centers and family child care homes. Respondents reported data from either ongoing price collection or their most recent market rate survey. For states reporting prices from market rate surveys before 2025, prices were adjusted for inflation. For non-responding states, CCAoA used the most recent market rate survey, adjusted for inflation when needed. Child care price data were obtained for 47 states; Colorado, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Washington, DC did not have price data available because they use alternative methodologies to set subsidy rates.
National Average Annual Price of Child Care Calculations
In 2018, CCAoA began estimating the national average annual price of child care. To increase accuracy, CCAoA conducts and reports three methods for calculating average child care prices for infants and 4-year-olds in centers and family child care homes. (School-age prices are not included due to the variability in available data across states.) The three methods vary in how they incorporate the number of child care spaces, age groups, and type of programs, factors which affect the price of child care. These three methods are then averaged to yield the national average annual price.
Note that each state’s child care landscape is nuanced and unique, and these differences may be obscured when calculating the national average.
How CCAoA Calculates Affordability
Child care prices are better understood in relation to household income. Each year, CCAoA generates state rankings of affordability — the percent of median household income needed to cover the average price of child care in that state, for both married couples with children and single parent families. Data on median family income is obtained from Table B19126 of the most recent U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, using five-year estimates.
The below graphics summarize how CCAoA calculates child care affordability.
*Based on U.S. Census Bureau definition of married-couple families and single parent households. The American Community Survey does not have income data on two-parent, non-married couple families.
For state-by-state affordability tables, please see the Child Care Affordability Analysis.
For more information about the methodologies used in the child care supply or affordability analyses, please email research@usa.childcareaware.org
