About ChildcareCost
What does childcare cost near you?
What we do
ChildcareCost surfaces federal childcare-price data at the county level so parents can compare what they pay to what their neighbors pay.
We focus on U.S. childcare prices by county and age group. Every page on childcarecost.org is built from the DOL National Database of Childcare Prices, cited and linkable so readers can trace any number back to its source.
Who runs this
ChildcareCost is built and maintained by the ChildcareCost Team. We're a small group working on making public U.S. childcare prices by county and age group data easier for non-specialists to read. If you have a correction, a data tip, or a question about how a number was derived, the contact email below reaches us directly.
Who this is for
ChildcareCost is built for expecting parents, working families, policy analysts, and HR benefits teams.
Why this exists
Public data on U.S. childcare prices by county and age group is technically free, but practically locked behind file formats, acronyms, and paywalled dashboards. ChildcareCostexists to close that gap: take the raw federal and public-sector data, and turn it into pages a normal person can read in thirty seconds.
How we work
- Primary source only. We pull from the DOL National Database of Childcare Prices and cite the exact dataset and version on every page.
- No invented numbers. If a figure is not in the underlying public data, it does not appear on childcarecost.org. We never generate synthetic statistics to fill gaps.
- Methodology, in plain English. We use the DOL National Database of Childcare Prices to surface county-level weekly prices for infant, toddler, preschool, and school-age care, broken out by center-based and family-based providers. Prices are shown both nominally and as a share of median household income in the same county.
- Refreshed on a schedule. Refreshed once per year when DOL publishes a new NDCP vintage, typically in the fall.
- Corrections welcome. Readers flag issues all the time. When the source fixes a record, ChildcareCost follows.
Known limitations
NDCP prices are modeled from state licensing records and surveys, not live rate sheets — actual tuition at a given provider may be 20-30 percent higher or lower. Coverage is strongest for counties with robust state childcare data and thinner for rural and territorial counties.
Why federal childcare-price data needs a public-facing home
The U.S. Department of Labor maintains the National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP), the only national source for county-level childcare prices broken out by age group and provider type. The database is built from state-level licensing records and DOL survey data; it covers nearly every U.S. county and ages from infant through school-age. The data is rigorous, but the official DOL presentation is a CSV download aimed at researchers and policy analysts, not a public-facing tool that a parent can use to look up local prices.
ChildcareCost is built to fill that gap. Every county page consolidates the NDCP price points for infant, toddler, preschool, and school-age care, broken out by center-based and family-based providers, and compares the local price against the local median household income to surface affordability rather than just nominal cost. The data is the same DOL data that was always public; the value the site adds is presentation and the affordability framing.
How the data pipeline works
The pipeline pulls a fresh NDCP vintage when DOL publishes one — typically annually, in the fall, with the prior-year prices. The pull touches every county with reported data and integrates against Census ACS median household income for the affordability calculation. Pages refresh on the same annual cadence; the as-of date is stamped on every value so readers know which DOL release the numbers come from.
A practical detail: NDCP is modeled from state licensing records rather than a survey of every provider, so the figures are best-estimate medians rather than market-rate quotes for any specific provider. Actual tuition at a given center can run 20-30 percent above or below the NDCP estimate; readers shopping for care should treat the NDCP figure as a planning anchor rather than as a specific quote.
Where childcare-price data has known caveats
Three caveats. First, NDCP coverage is uneven for rural and territorial counties because the source state licensing data is thinner there. The pages flag low-confidence counties explicitly.
Second, the price points reflect license-regulated formal childcare; they exclude informal family arrangements (grandparents, relatives, neighbors) that account for a substantial share of actual care in many communities. For households relying on informal care, the NDCP price is the comparison point rather than the actual cost.
Third, the affordability ratio is computed against median household income. Households well above or below the local median will experience the same nominal price very differently. The methodology page on this site documents every dataset, every refresh cadence, and every limitation in detail so readers can trace any numeric value on the site back to the underlying federal source. We treat that traceability as a hard requirement for any data product that asks readers to make real-world decisions on its output. The page reports both the nominal price and the median-income ratio so readers can adjust the interpretation to their own situation.
Independence
ChildcareCost is an independent publication. We are not funded, owned, or directed by any of the agencies, companies, or organizations that appear in our data. Hosting is paid for by advertising — see our Privacy Policy for details — and we do not take paid placements, sponsored rankings, or "remove-my-entry" fees.
History
ChildcareCost launched in 2026 as part of a small portfolio of independent public-data sites. It has been maintained and updated continuously since.
Contact
Tips, corrections, data-partnership questions, and press inquiries: hello@childcarecost.org. More options on our contact page.