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Child Care Costs up 40%. How Inflation Is Impacting Affordability of Daycare Across America [2025]

FinanceBuzz used government and non-profit data on the cost of child care to find the states where costs have risen the most and least over the last decade.

By Josh Koebert

Edited by Melinda Sineriz, ABFP™

Updated March 3, 2025

For many Americans, it feels like the last decade has hit their wallets particularly hard. From 2013 to 2023, the national inflation rate was 31%, with expenses in some areas shooting up even more. In that ten-year period the average cost for a private college education increased by 37%, the annual average amount Americans spent on food rose by 51%, and the median sale price for new homes in the United States increased by 59%.

Another expense that outpaced the 31% inflation rate from 2013-2023 is child care. On average, parents today can expect to pay around 40% more annually for daycare than they did a decade ago, putting extra strain on young families, who may also be facing other large expenses like homeownership, cars, and the costs that come from raising kids. While that 40% figure is a national average, cost increases can vary greatly from state to state, making it easier for parents to keep up with rising child care costs in some states and putting a greater burden on their wallets in others.

Using government and nonprofit data, our FinanceBuzz research team collected data on child care price increases in every state over the last decade to determine where costs have increased the most and least.

Key findings

The national average cost of daycare in the U.S. is $1,039 per month.
- Most expensive states for daycare: Washington D.C. ($1,912), Massachusetts ($1,727), and Minnesota ($1,500) are the most expensive states for daycare
- Least expensive states for daycare: Mississippi ($568), South Dakota ($624), and Alabama ($637) are the least expensive.

Daycare costs are rising:
- In the last 10 years, average daycare costs in the U.S. have gone up $295 per month, a 40% increase in the timeframe. This is higher than the national rate of inflation (31%).
- Vermont saw the largest increase (82%) of any state in the U.S.
Child care costs are most stable in Wyoming, Iowa, and Illinois, where figures went up by just 15% (or less) over a 10-year span.

Infant vs. 4-year old child care rates

Having some form of child care is necessary for many parents with children who are too young to attend school full-time, which includes most children under the age of five. Most child care facilities charge different rates depending on the specific age of the child, with costs for infant care typically being higher than the rate for older children.

With that in mind, we found the average nationwide costs for both babies and preschoolers to show how costs for the two groups have changed in the last decade. Infant care costs are consistently at least $2,000 higher per year than costs for 4-year-olds, and those infant care costs have increased at slightly higher rates as well. All told, infant care costs have risen by 40% since 2013, while the annual average price for preschoolers has gone up by “only” 39%.

The cost of child care in every state

Across the nation, parents can expect to pay $12,472 annually, or $1,039 per month, for child care in the U.S. This is a $3,535 difference vs. 10 years ago, equating to a 40% increase over a decade. That means parents across the country have to pay almost $300 more per month for child care than they did a decade ago.

Thankfully for some parents and unfortunately for others, actual costs can vary significantly from those averages depending on where you live. Child care is most affordable in Mississippi, where monthly daycare costs come in at $568 — the only state with costs under $600 per month. South Dakota is the state where child care is the second-most affordable, costing parents $624 monthly. The only two other states with daycare costs lower than $700 per month are Alabama ($637) and Kentucky ($689).

Conversely, parents in two states and D.C. are looking at child care bills that top the $1,500 threshold every month. The District of Columbia is where daycare is the most expensive overall, with parents paying $1,912 per month on average. Massachusetts is second-highest at $1,727 while monthly daycare costs in Minnesota come in at exactly $1,500.

Compared to a decade ago, costs rose the most in Vermont, where the monthly cost for daycare went from $802 in 2013 to $1,459 in 2023, a $657 cost increase that has made daycare 82% more expensive for Vermont parents. Both of those changes are the biggest in the country, followed by New Jersey, where monthly child care costs went up by $607 in the last decade, a 74% increase.

Child care costs in two different states increased by less than $100 per month between 2013 and 2023. A month of daycare cost $704 in Wyoming in 2013, and that figure rose by just $73 to $777 in 2023, an increase of just 10%. Iowa is the other state where child care costs have been remarkably stable, going from $702 per month in 2013 to $791 in 2023, a 13% change that raised the monthly cost of daycare in Iowa by just $89.

Child care costs increases compared to inflation

Just about everything tends to cost more over time thanks to the impacts of inflation. However, it is rare for increases to exactly follow inflationary trends across the country, with costs rising slower than inflation in certain states and some rising faster in others.

Vermont is the state where child care costs rose at the highest rate, increasing by 82% from 2013 to 2023, more than 2.5 times higher than the national inflation rate of 31% in that same time period. New Jersey saw the second-highest jump, with costs rising by 74% in the last decade, while costs in Tennessee went up by 67%, the third-highest in the country.

On the other hand, Wyoming’s child care costs have been remarkably stable, clocking in at an increase of just 10% in the last 10 years — less than a third of the national inflation rate. Iowa and Illinois take the silver and bronze medals when it comes to keeping child care costs in check, with increases of 13% and 15%, respectively. All told, 9 total states (Wyoming, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, New York, North Carolina, Maine, Kansas, and North Dakota) and the District of Columbia saw child care costs increase more slowly than the national inflation rate of 31% between 2013 and 2023, meaning costs rose at a rate faster than inflation in the remaining 41 states.

Full data

Smart ways families can save on child care expenses

Sending your little ones to daycare can put a strain on your wallet. In an effort to save some extra money, below are some tips and resources for how parents can stick to their financial goals.

Enroll for a 0% intro APR credit card and pay off big purchases without worrying about interest charges.
Open savings accounts for your kids to teach them about budgeting and helpful money habits early on.
Boost your income with a side hustle and earn an extra $3,000 a month.

Methodology

FinanceBuzz found the annual costs for center-based infant and 4-year-old child care in every state in the country in 2013 and 2023 according to annual reports published by Child Care Aware® of America. We also used the 2013 and 2022 cost data (the most recently published data) from the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Database of Childcare Prices. Those costs were then averaged together to find a general “child care cost” in every state for each year.

The national inflation rate was determined by using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ CPI Inflation Calculator.