How Much Does Daycare Cost? Official U.S. Prices by Age

The median U.S. price for full-time, center-based infant care is $243.75 a week — about $12,675 a year, according to the U.S. Department of Labor's 2022 National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), the most recent official release. Family child care and older age groups cost less on average, and where a family lives changes the price more than any other single factor.

Key takeaways

• Center-based infant care is the most expensive age-and-setting combination nationally: $243.75/week, or $12,675/year.
• Family child care is cheaper than center-based care at every age, but the gap narrows as children get older.
• The most expensive county in the data (San Francisco, CA, at $606.61/week for infant center care) costs more than 6 times the least expensive counties.
• Not every state has price data — Connecticut, New Mexico, and Indiana currently have none in the DOL's dataset.

How Much Does Daycare Cost on Average?

The Department of Labor's Women's Bureau tracks full-time childcare prices for four age groups, in two care settings, at the county level, across the U.S. Nationally, the population-weighted median weekly prices for 2022 (the latest published vintage) are:

• Infant: $243.75/week center-based ($12,675/year) · $185.00/week family child care ($9,620/year)
• Toddler: $206.07/week center-based ($10,715.64/year) · $175.00/week family child care ($9,100/year)
• Preschool: $186.00/week center-based ($9,672/year) · $171.45/week family child care ($8,915.40/year)
• School-age: $148.30/week center-based ($7,711.60/year) · $150.00/week family child care ($7,800/year)

For a full breakdown of why infant care costs the most and how the gap narrows by age, see our guide to daycare cost by age.

Center-Based vs. Family Child Care

Family child care — a smaller, home-based provider — is less expensive than a center in every age group above, though the difference shrinks for school-age kids ($148.30 center vs. $150.00 family — family care is actually slightly more expensive once children reach school age). We break down when each setting tends to cost more in center-based vs. family child care: which costs less?

Where You Live Changes the Price a Lot

National and state medians hide enormous variation at the county level. In the 2022 data, infant center-based care ranges from $90.47/week in Wayne County, KY to $606.61/week in San Francisco County, CA — a more than 6-fold difference. Coastal, high-cost-of-living metro counties dominate the expensive end; see the full list in the most (and least) expensive counties for infant care, or compare states directly in childcare costs by state.

You can look up your own county's price directly in our full state-by-state directory, or estimate your household's total cost with the affordability calculator.

Is There an "Affordable" Threshold?

You may see childcare cost measured against 7% of household income — the cap federal CCDF rules placed on subsidized families' childcare co-payments from 2024 until it was rescinded on July 13, 2026. It was never a definition of affordability for the general population, only a co-payment cap for subsidized families, and it's no longer current federal policy. We explain what it meant and why it ended in the 7% childcare benchmark, explained. For context: in Niagara County, NY — a real county near the national median — full-time infant center care runs $12,844/year against a $85,934 median family income, or 14.9% of income, more than double that old benchmark.

Where These Numbers Come From

Every price on this site traces back to the U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, National Database of Childcare Prices (2022) — the only comprehensive, county-level, publicly funded source for U.S. childcare prices. State and national figures are a population-weighted median of county medians, not a separate DOL statistic, and some values are statistically imputed by DOL where a county lacked enough survey responses. We never substitute a neighbor's price or a national average for missing data — a county with no data simply shows "no official data available." Full detail on the source and our methodology is in where our numbers come from and our methodology page.