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Family money · updated Oct 12, 20266 min read

The average cost of childcare per month

About $1,094 a month — $13,128 a year — and up 29% since 2020, outpacing inflation. For two small children in full-time center care, the bill beats the median rent in 47 states. Here is what childcare actually costs, why it costs that much, and how families are paying for it.

$1,094 / month

The 2024 national average annual cost of childcare, $13,128, divided by twelve. Source: Child Care Aware of America, “Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis” (state survey, January 2025). Up 29% since 2020.

The numbers, by type of care

Not all childcare is the same market. The national center-based averages from Child Care Aware of America’s 2024–25 state fact sheets split the bill by the child’s age, because infants are the most expensive humans to watch — legally, an infant classroom needs one adult for every three or four children:

Center-based carePer yearPer month
Infant$15,636$1,303
Toddler$14,336$1,195
4-year-old$12,555$1,046

Center averages: Child Care Aware of America 2024–25 fact sheets, via 2026 reporting; toddler figure via Consumer Affairs analysis of CCAoA 2025 data.

The alternatives bracket the center price. Family child care (home-based) runs cheaper in most states. A nanny is the premium option: Care.com’s 2024 Cost of Care survey put the weekly nanny rate at $755 in 2023 — about $39,000 a year — with Massachusetts the priciest market at $899 a week. Part-time center care roughly halves the full-time bill. And the cheapest option, family help, costs $0 in cash — which is why the grandparent lottery is the single biggest determinant of a family’s childcare economics.

Why it costs this much

Childcare is expensive for the most defensible reason a service can be expensive: labor. Centers run on ratios — one adult per three or four infants — that make the business fundamentally labor-intensive, and unlike public schools, infant and toddler care gets little public funding. Parents cover most of the cost directly, while center profit margins sit around 1%. There is no fat to cut; the price is the staffing.

The trend is what stings. The average cost rose 13.3% from 2023 to 2024 alone, and is up 35.5% over five years — both well ahead of general inflation. The pandemic hollowed out supply (centers closed, workers left), demand snapped back, and prices did what prices do. Families are not imagining that childcare got dramatically more expensive: it did, on a curve steeper than housing.

The affordability math

The federal affordability benchmark says childcare should cost no more than 7% of household income. Reality: the average toddler-care bill consumes about 14.3% of the median family income nationally — double the benchmark. In North Carolina, where full-time center-based toddler care averages $12,960 a year against a $90,290 median family income, the bite is 14.4%, and the income needed to keep care at the 7% line is $185,153 — more than double the state’s median. (Consumer Affairs analysis of 2025 CCAoA data.)

Put it against housing and the picture sharpens: center-based care for two children costs more than the median annual rent in 47 states, and more than the median mortgage payment in 39. A LendingTree study found full-time infant center care averaging $1,282 a month nationally — and in Springfield, Massachusetts, monthly infant care ($1,996) exceeds the average two-bedroom rent ($1,734) outright. Childcare is not a household expense that happens to be large. In much of the country it is the largest expense, full stop.

How families are actually paying

Care.com’s 2024 Cost of Care survey found 47% of parents spending more than $1,500 a month on childcare — and documented what the bill does to lives: 28% of parents work two jobs, 27% reduce their hours, 25% move closer to family, 19% go into debt, and 17% leave the workforce entirely. Those are not budgeting tweaks; they are life restructurings, downstream of a single line item.

The tax code helps at the margins, and the margins recently improved. For 2026 the dependent care assistance exclusion rose to $7,500 (from $5,000), and the Child and Dependent Care Credit’s maximum rate rose from 35% to 50% — though the two do not stack, the credit is nonrefundable, and employer-plan exclusions reduce the credit’s expense limit dollar for dollar. Worth claiming, not worth planning around.

The new insight

Think of childcare as a second mortgage that ends in five years — because that is what it is: a large, fixed, temporary, front-loaded cost with a known end date (kindergarten). Mortgages get thirty-year plans, refinancing strategies, and bridge loans; childcare gets panic and lifestyle cuts. The families who come out ahead treat it like the mortgage it resembles: they finance the bridge deliberately — a planned drawdown of savings, staggered shifts, grandparent years sequenced early when care is priciest, a temporary downshift in retirement contributions with a written plan to restore them — instead of permanently shrinking their lives around a bill that expires. The USDA’s own age curve proves the point: childcare spending collapses after age five. The bill is a tunnel, not a cave. Budget like someone who can see the light at the end of it.

Price your own arrangement

National averages are the starting point; your arrangement is the number. Our Cost of Raising a Child Calculator prices your childcare choice — family care, part-time center, full-time center, or nanny — across ages 0 to 5 and sets it beside the eighteen-year baseline, so the biggest line item gets the attention it deserves. And if the bill has you questioning the second income entirely, read the stay-home math next.

Sources

Posted at the bottom of the page

How much is childcare per month on average?
About $1,094 a month nationally ($13,128 a year), per Child Care Aware of America’s 2024 analysis. Infant center care averages $1,303 a month; a 4-year-old in center care averages $1,046.
Is childcare more expensive than rent?
Often, yes. Center-based care for two children exceeds the median annual rent in 47 states and the median mortgage payment in 39 states (Child Care Aware of America). For one infant, the national average ($1,282–$1,303/month) runs just under the average two-bedroom rent.
What is the 7% childcare affordability benchmark?
The federal benchmark holds that childcare is affordable at or below 7% of household income. The national average toddler-care bill consumes about 14.3% of median family income — roughly double the line.
When does the childcare bill end?
Roughly at kindergarten, around age five — which is why the six years from 0 to 5 are the tunnel. After-school and summer care continue at far lower cost (summer programs average ~$1,200 per child).

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