Child Care Aware® of America’s Research Methodology
Data Collection
Survey: The data in the child care price and supply analyses comes from a variety of sources. In January 2025, 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 topics: child care supply and capacity, quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS), child care referrals, and annual child care prices.
Respondents were asked to complete the survey based on data as of December 2024. However, some states were only able to pull point-in-time data from early 2025. Therefore, all data included in these analyses represent a time point between December 2024 and March 2025. For ease of description, we refer to data as 2024 data throughout the report.
Public data: Some states do not collect certain data points the way CCAoA asked them on the survey. Child care supply, QRIS, and price data were gathered from public databases, as available, from the following states: Florida, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wyoming.
PRICE AND AFFORDABILITY ANALYSES
Tracking the Annual Price of Care
Data in the price and affordability analyses comes from the survey of state CCR&Rs and state agencies mentioned above. The survey contained a series of questions asking respondents to report the annual price of child care in 2024 for infants, toddlers, and 4-year-olds in licensed centers and family child care homes. There were also questions about the price of care for school-age children before and after school, and during the summer for licensed, private centers and family child care homes. Some states draw this information from ongoing price information collection, others from their most recent market rate survey. Where appropriate and feasible, data is adjusted for inflation (three states did not provide information on the year their price data was collected). For states that did not respond to the survey, CCAoA used data from the state’s most recent market rate survey, adjusted for 2024 inflation. We were able to obtain child care price data for 49 states and Washington, DC; New Mexico no longer conducts market rate surveys.
How CCAoA Calculates the National Price Estimates
In 2018, CCAoA began estimating a national price of child care. To increase accuracy and interpretation, CCAoA conducts and reports three approaches for calculating the average child care prices for infants and 4-year-olds in center-based care, as well as in family child care homes. See each methodology below for more details. School-age prices were not included due to the variability in available data on these prices across the country.
It is important to understand the following considerations when interpreting a national average price for child care. Each year, extraordinary efforts are involved in making sure that each state is represented accurately; CCAoA’s research team works very closely with CCR&R and state agency staff to ensure that data is collected as uniformly as possible. However, each state’s child care landscape is nuanced and unique, and differences may be obscured when attempting to calculate a national average. CCAoA generally does not recommend using a national average of child care prices, and particularly not as a standard of comparison with any state’s average prices of child care.
Within this context, CCAoA is reporting national average price estimates. CCAoA developed three methodologies that take into account such factors as number of slots by age group and number of programs, which could affect the price of child care in states. Explanations of each methodology, along with calculations, are below. None of these methods is ideal for determining one number that accurately describes child care prices across the country. Though these three methods produce similar numbers, none of methodologies unpacks the complexities of child care affordability. Prices of a service like child care are better understood in the context of household income, by state and by regions within states.
How CCAoA Calculates Affordability
Each year, CCAoA generates state rankings by affordability — the percent of median household income needed to cover the average price of child care in that state. To estimate how much families spend on child care, CCAoA calculates affordability percentages using median family income in each state. This information is found in Table B19126 of the most recent American Community Survey five-year estimates, which is a product of the U.S. Census Bureau. Here is a summary of 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.
Many sources cite 7% of family income as an index of affordability, based on the US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) rule that limits co-pays for families receiving federal child care subsidies to 7% of family income. CCAoA compares the percent of median household income needed to cover the average price of center-based child care for an infant to this 7% index.
For more information about the methodologies used in the child care supply or affordability analyses, please email research@usa.childcareaware.org
