Childcare Deserts: The U.S. Counties With No Official Price Data

Of the 3,235 counties and county-equivalents in the Census Bureau's authoritative U.S. county list, 250 — about 7.7% — have no official childcare price in the U.S. Department of Labor's 2022 National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), the most recent official vintage. That includes two entire states, New Mexico and Indiana, and all of Connecticut, each absent for a distinct reason.

Key takeaways

• 2,985 of 3,235 counties (92.3%) have an official 2022 DOL price; 250 (7.7%) do not.
• New Mexico and Indiana are absent from the NDCP dataset entirely — no county in either state has a published price.
• Connecticut is a different case: DOL does publish Connecticut prices, but for boundaries the state stopped using in 2023.
• The largest population center with no data: Marion County, Indiana (Indianapolis), ~972,000 people.
• ChildcareCost never fills a gap with an average, an estimate, or a neighboring county's price — only an honest "No official data available."

How much of the U.S. has no childcare price data?

2,985 of 3,235 counties — 92.3% — carry at least one official 2022 price for some combination of age group and care setting. The remaining 250 counties (7.7%) have none at all. That gap breaks down into three distinct causes, not one.

Why are New Mexico and Indiana missing entirely?

New Mexico and Indiana are the only two states absent from the NDCP dataset outright — not a single county in either state reports a price for any age group or care setting. DOL's public documentation does not state a reason for the omission, so ChildcareCost reports the fact without speculating about the cause.

Connecticut's special case: real data, but the wrong boundaries

Connecticut is different from New Mexico and Indiana. DOL's dataset does include Connecticut prices — but keyed to the state's eight pre-2023 counties. In 2023, Connecticut replaced those counties with nine planning regions, and the new regions' boundaries don't nest inside the old ones. Publishing an old county's price under a new region's name would mean attributing a price to an area where it was never actually measured — the same category of error as substituting a neighboring county's figure. So ChildcareCost shows no price for any of Connecticut's nine planning regions, rather than a number that measures the wrong area.

The largest 'childcare deserts' by population

The ten most populous U.S. counties with no official 2022 childcare price — eight of the ten are in Indiana:

• Marion County, IN (Indianapolis) — ~971,700 people
• Bernalillo County, NM (Albuquerque) — ~674,700 people
• Lake County, IN — ~497,700 people
• Allen County, IN (Fort Wayne) — ~385,500 people
• Hamilton County, IN — ~349,500 people
• St. Joseph County, IN — ~272,400 people
• Doña Ana County, NM — ~219,900 people
• Elkhart County, IN — ~206,800 people
• Tippecanoe County, IN — ~187,000 people
• Vanderburgh County, IN — ~179,900 people

What ChildcareCost shows instead of a guess

Every county page on ChildcareCost renders honestly, whether it has price data or not. A county with no official price shows "No official data available" — never a statewide average, a neighboring county's figure, or any other substitute. The full sourcing and aggregation rules are on the methodology page, and every state's coverage can be checked on its state directory page.