Quick Answer
In 2025, full-time infant care in a childcare center cost $27,067 a year in Massachusetts — the most expensive state in Child Care Aware of America's 2025 data — and $6,492 a year in Mississippi, the cheapest. And the bill for two children in a center costs more than a full year of housing in 38 of the 46 states that reported prices.
At a Glance
- Most expensive infant care: Massachusetts — $27,067 a year (Child Care Aware of America, 2025)
- Least expensive infant care: Mississippi — $6,492 a year
- Middle state: $15,080 a year for infant center care (median of the 46 reported state prices)
- Two children in a center: Costs more than a year of housing in 38 of 46 states
- Care vs. college: Infant care beats in-state public tuition in 38 of 46 states
- The 7% affordability rule: Only Mississippi (6%) comes in under it for married couples
- The data: Child Care Aware of America 2025 prices for 46 states; EPI figures fill in 5 more, flagged in the table
📋 The Full Table: Childcare Prices in Every State
Average yearly prices for full-time care in a childcare center, listed A–Z so your state is easy to find. "Two children" means one infant plus one 4-year-old in the same center.
| State | Infant (center) | Age 4 (center) | Two children (center) | Housing (per year) | Infant care, % of income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | $8,859 | $8,219 | $17,078 | $17,196 | 8% |
| Alaska ‡ | $12,425 | $9,565 | $21,990 | $26,748 | 9% |
| Arizona | $16,384 | $11,987 | $28,371 | $21,636 | 13% |
| Arkansas | $9,727 | $8,530 | $18,257 | $16,140 | 9% |
| California | $23,071 | $13,634 | $36,705 | $35,352 | 16% |
| Colorado † | $22,959 | $16,811 | $39,770 | $21,924 | 18.1% |
| Connecticut | $18,616 | $15,496 | $34,112 | $29,148 | 11% |
| Delaware | $17,252 | $13,584 | $30,836 | $21,792 | 13% |
| District of Columbia † | $29,809 | $23,877 | $53,686 | $24,326 | 19.0% |
| Florida | $14,230 | $10,052 | $24,282 | $23,508 | 12% |
| Georgia | $11,066 | $9,574 | $20,640 | $21,396 | 9% |
| Hawaii | $25,096 | $14,869 | $39,965 | $34,848 | 18% |
| Idaho | $10,887 | $7,717 | $18,604 | $20,244 | 10% |
| Illinois | $19,601 | $14,739 | $34,340 | $23,844 | 14% |
| Indiana | $17,461 | $12,854 | $30,315 | $16,848 | 15% |
| Iowa | $13,253 | $10,439 | $23,692 | $18,396 | 11% |
| Kansas | $12,741 | $10,692 | $23,433 | $20,268 | 11% |
| Kentucky | $13,075 | $10,994 | $24,069 | $17,196 | 12% |
| Louisiana | $11,133 | $9,418 | $20,551 | $19,248 | 10% |
| Maine | $16,144 | $14,516 | $30,660 | $20,748 | 13% |
| Maryland | $20,124 | $14,612 | $34,736 | $28,164 | 12% |
| Massachusetts | $27,067 | $21,364 | $48,431 | $32,712 | 15% |
| Michigan | $14,064 | $13,342 | $27,406 | $18,828 | 11% |
| Minnesota | $20,592 | $15,912 | $36,504 | $23,364 | 14% |
| Mississippi | $6,492 | $6,240 | $12,732 | $16,728 | 6% |
| Missouri | $15,080 | $10,440 | $25,520 | $18,288 | 13% |
| Montana | $15,476 | $14,677 | $30,153 | $21,576 | 13% |
| Nebraska | $15,080 | $12,480 | $27,560 | $20,832 | 12% |
| Nevada | $15,633 | $13,219 | $28,852 | $23,184 | 14% |
| New Hampshire † | $18,253 | $15,176 | $33,429 | $18,562 | 13.7% |
| New Jersey | $17,977 | $14,551 | $32,528 | $33,948 | 11% |
| New Mexico † | $14,974 | $10,505 | $25,479 | $13,284 | 19.5% |
| New York | $20,978 | $17,800 | $38,778 | $30,660 | 14% |
| North Carolina | $13,916 | $11,530 | $25,446 | $19,572 | 12% |
| North Dakota | $12,281 | $10,855 | $23,136 | $21,144 | 9% |
| Ohio | $13,936 | $10,552 | $24,488 | $18,204 | 11% |
| Oklahoma | $11,012 | $8,425 | $19,437 | $18,468 | 11% |
| Oregon | $21,774 | $14,334 | $36,108 | $25,884 | 17% |
| Pennsylvania | $15,302 | $12,781 | $28,083 | $21,144 | 11% |
| Rhode Island | $18,972 | $16,640 | $35,612 | $26,808 | 13% |
| South Carolina † | $12,102 | $11,018 | $23,120 | $14,690 | 13.1% |
| South Dakota | $8,859 | $8,282 | $17,141 | $20,160 | 7% |
| Tennessee | $13,926 | $11,565 | $25,491 | $18,792 | 12% |
| Texas | $10,894 | $9,863 | $20,757 | $25,272 | 9% |
| Utah | $14,533 | $10,136 | $24,669 | $24,108 | 12% |
| Vermont | $21,670 | $17,759 | $39,429 | $22,884 | 16% |
| Virginia | $17,264 | $14,404 | $31,668 | $25,524 | 11% |
| Washington | $23,136 | $17,760 | $40,896 | $29,340 | 15% |
| West Virginia | $9,339 | $8,272 | $17,611 | $15,060 | 9% |
| Wisconsin | $18,604 | $12,330 | $30,934 | $20,268 | 14% |
| Wyoming | $13,120 | $11,524 | $24,644 | $21,048 | 11% |
† Colorado, Washington, D.C., New Hampshire, New Mexico and South Carolina did not have a Child Care Aware 2025 state figure available, so their prices come from the Economic Policy Institute (2024 prices, inflation-adjusted; updated July 2026). For those five rows the housing column shows average annual rent, and the income column uses EPI's median income — the two sources measure those differently, so we keep them labeled rather than blended. Details are in Method & Sources below.
‡ Alaska: the two sources disagree about Alaska more than any other state — $12,425 on Child Care Aware's 2025 fact sheet (shown here) versus $22,016 from EPI, a gap of more than $9,500. We publish the 2025 figure, flag it, and leave Alaska out of every ranking on this page until a third source settles it.
One more reading note: the income column is infant center care as a share of median married-couple income (EPI's own median income for the † rows). For single parents the share is far higher almost everywhere — that story is in the 7% section below.
💰 Two Kids in a Center Can Cost More Than Your House
One child in care is a big bill. Two is a different financial universe. Adding an infant and a 4-year-old together, the yearly center bill beats a full year of housing costs in 38 of the 46 states that reported 2025 prices to Child Care Aware of America.
Massachusetts is the extreme: $48,431 a year for two children in a center, against $32,712 for housing — the daycare bill is nearly half again the housing bill. Washington, D.C. is higher still on the Economic Policy Institute's figures, at $53,686 a year for two children in a center. Only eight states flip the order — Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Dakota and Texas — and in most of them it is close.
This is the math behind the decision so many moms run at the kitchen table: not "can we afford daycare?" but "does my paycheck survive it?" When two kids in care out-cost the mortgage or rent, working less, going part-time, or waiting to space siblings stops looking like a lifestyle choice and starts looking like arithmetic. Neither answer is wrong — but it helps to run your own state's two numbers, side by side, before anyone tells you what you "should" do.
🎓 Infant Care Costs More Than College in Most States
Here is the comparison that lands hardest at baby showers: in 38 of the 46 reporting states, one year of infant care in a center costs more than one year of in-state public college tuition. Put two children in a center and care beats tuition in all 46.
Florida shows the gap plainly — a year of infant care runs $14,230, which is 2.2 times a year of public college tuition ($6,359). And there is a catch that makes the childcare version harder than the college version: college arrives after eighteen years of saving, tax-advantaged accounts and financial aid forms. Infant care arrives this year, at full price, right when parents are at the lowest-earning, most sleep-deprived point of their careers.
None of this means college got cheap. It means the most expensive "tuition" most families ever pay is the one nobody calls tuition — and it is due before your baby can walk.
📏 The 7% Affordability Rule — and the One State That Meets It
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has an official line for this: childcare counts as affordable when it takes no more than 7% of family income. Measured against median married-couple income, exactly one of the 46 reporting states comes in under that line — Mississippi, at 6%. South Dakota sits right on it at 7%. Every other reporting state is over, and Hawaii is furthest over at 18%.
For single parents, the picture is starker. Infant center care swallows 57% of median single-parent income in Massachusetts — more than half of everything, before rent — and at least half in five states: Massachusetts (57%), Oregon (52%), Hawaii (51%), New York (51%) and Washington (50%).
So if care feels unaffordable in your state, that is not a budgeting failure. By the federal government's own definition, it is unaffordable in 45 of 46 states for a typical two-parent family, and dramatically so for single moms. The 7% line is useful precisely because it gives parents a neutral yardstick: you can look at your state's percentage in the table above and know whether the problem is your budget — or the price.
🔍 Method & Sources
Primary source — Child Care Aware of America (2025)
Prices come from Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply (published May 2026; 2025 prices), extracted from CCAoA's own per-state fact sheets — obtained for 46 of 51 jurisdictions. Data © Child Care Aware of America, republished with citation as its reuse terms require.
The five flagged states (†)
Colorado, New Mexico, South Carolina and Washington, D.C. did not report 2025 price data to CCAoA, and no New Hampshire fact sheet was available. Their prices come from the Economic Policy Institute (data updated July 2026), which inflation-adjusts CCAoA's 2024 prices — a different vintage, so those rows are flagged and never blended into a comparison unlabeled. EPI publishes no toddler price; the Age 4 column for † states carries EPI's 4-year-old center price.
How the Age 4 column was built
For CCAoA states, the 4-year-old center price is the fact sheet's two-child center total minus its infant center price — arithmetic on two figures printed on the same sheet. Validated against CCAoA's published 4-year-old prices: Massachusetts ($21,364) and Mississippi ($6,240) match exactly.
About that national average
CCAoA's blended national average is $13,184 a year — and CCAoA itself cautions against using that blended figure as a benchmark for any individual state, so this page doesn't. Our midpoint is the median of the 46 state infant-center prices in the table: $15,080.
Housing and income columns
For CCAoA states, housing is the annual housing cost printed on each fact sheet, and the income percentages use the married-couple and single-parent median incomes printed on the same sheets. For † states, housing is average annual rent (Census Bureau ACS, via EPI) and percentages use EPI's median income. Different measures, deliberately kept in labeled columns.
Alaska (‡)
CCAoA's 2025 fact sheet puts Alaska infant center care at $12,425; EPI puts it at $22,016 — a $9,591 gap, the largest divergence of any state. The table shows the 2025 figure flagged, and Alaska appears in no ranking on this page pending a third check.
Sources
Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2025 Price & Supply — childcareaware.org/price-landscape25, with per-state fact sheets at info.childcareaware.org. Economic Policy Institute, "Child care costs in the United States" (July 2026) — epi.org/child-care-costs-in-the-united-states.