Methodology

All prices come from the National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), published by the U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. It reports county-level childcare prices by age group (infant, toddler, preschool, school-age), care setting (center-based and family childcare), and price percentile.

The latest official vintage is 2022 (latest official data). You can view the source dataset directly: U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau. Full citation: U.S. Department of Labor, Women's Bureau, National Database of Childcare Prices (2022).

The list of counties itself comes from the U.S. Census county adjacency file, not from the price data — so a county still appears, with official name and suffix, even when it has no published price. Some states (for example New Mexico and Indiana) are absent from the price dataset entirely; those counties show a “No official data available” state rather than a substitute figure.

The source reports weekly prices. Monthly and annual figures are arithmetic conversions of the weekly price, using 52 weeks per year, and every converted figure discloses its basis:

• annual = weekly × 52
• monthly = weekly × 52 ÷ 12

No rounding happens in the math — figures are rounded only when displayed, so totals stay internally consistent.

Some prices in the source are statistically imputed by the DOL rather than directly observed. We carry that flag through: wherever an imputed price is shown, it is marked with a dagger and this footnote —

† Value statistically imputed by DOL — see methodology

The value is still the official figure; the marker simply tells you how the DOL produced it so you can weigh it accordingly.

State and national medians are the population-weighted median of the individual county median prices: counties are ordered by price, and we report the price at which cumulative county population reaches half the total. Each figure is reported alongside the number of counties it summarizes.

Weighting matters more than it sounds. Most counties are small and rural, and childcare costs less there — so an unweighted median across counties describes a typical county, not a typical family. In Georgia, whose 159 counties range from $102.50 to $205.00 a week for infant center care, the unweighted figure is $108.50, while the price where half of Georgians live is $205.00. DOL’s own Technical Guide recommends adjusting for county population size in any state- or national-level study, and this method reproduces DOL’s published state medians.

Because it selects an actual county’s price rather than averaging between counties, every figure shown is a price some county genuinely charges. It remains a labeled derivation, not an official DOL figure, and the standalone calculator uses these national medians as its default price source.

The latest official prices are from 2022. Where we show a present-value figure, it is the 2022 official price scaled by the change in the Consumer Price Index for child care (BLS series CUUR0000SEEB03) between 2022 and the adjustment year — an estimate, not a new measurement.

Current basis: the annual index rose from 330.305 in 2022 to 386.417 in 2025, so 2022 prices are multiplied by 1.170 (about 17.0%) to estimate 2025 dollars. Both figures are full-year annual averages published by BLS.

Any such figure is visibly labeled “estimate, adjusted for inflation by ChildcareCost— not an official figure”. The official 2022 value is always shown alongside it. When no inflation factor is configured, only the official figure appears.

Prices are measured against the 7%-of-income benchmark — the cap federal CCDF rules placed on subsidized families' childcare co-payments from 2024 until it was rescinded on July 13, 2026. A cost at or below 7% of family income is counted as within the benchmark; above it, over the benchmark.

The 7% figure was always a cap on what states could charge subsidized families as a CCDF co-payment — not a federal finding that childcare is affordable at 7% of income for every family. The 2026 "Restoring Flexibility" final rule (91 FR 25796) removed that cap effective July 13, 2026; federal rules now require only that co-payments not be "a barrier to families receiving assistance". We still draw the 7% line as a familiar reference point, but it is not a current federal rule, and it never defined affordability for families paying full price.

Citation: 45 CFR 98.45(l)(3) — 7% cap in force 2024 to July 13, 2026, rescinded by 91 FR 25796

School-age prices reflect a school-year, part-day arrangement, not full-day year-round care.

Because of that, school-age figures are not directly comparable to the full-day infant, toddler, and preschool prices, and we disclose this wherever a school-age price appears.

We show the dataset vintage — 2022 (latest official data) — next to the figures, never a page build date. When the Department of Labor publishes a newer database, we replace the underlying data and update the vintage label; until then, the 2022 figures stand as the latest official data.