How much does daycare cost in Mississippi?

About $640 a month for an infant in full-time center care, or $7,680 a year, which is 8.8 percent of the $87,460 median household income, the cheapest state Child Care Aware reports and the only one near the 7 percent line.

How much does daycare cost in Massachusetts?

About $2,195 a month for an infant in full-time center care, or $26,340 a year, which is 30.1 percent of the median household income. Two children cost $52,680, or 60.2 percent of the median income.

Why does daycare cost so much more in some states?

Because child care is labor, and labor is priced locally. The caregiver wage, the center's rent, and the state's staffing ratio set the price, and all three run higher in Massachusetts and DC than in Mississippi. A center in a major metro costs 15 to 40 percent more than its state average.

Does child care cost more than rent?

In 49 states plus Washington DC, the price of care for two children in a center exceeds the median rent, by 19 percent to over 100 percent, according to Child Care Aware's 2024 analysis. At the national average, two children cost $31,224 a year, or $2,602 a month.

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The nursery ledger · Table No. 45

Daycare Cost by State

The same infant in a center costs $640 a month in Mississippi and $2,195 in Massachusetts, a spread of $18,660 a year. This article prices four states, explains why the price moves, and states the comparison that should worry a planner.

Filed November 2, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

The spread, in one table

The price of the same infant in the same kind of care, full-time, in a center, ranges from $640 a month in Mississippi to $2,195 a month in Massachusetts, which is $7,680 a year against $26,340, a spread of $18,660 a year for the same child in the same kind of room. Washington DC is $2,183 a month, or $26,193 a year, which is the highest price Child Care Aware reports for infant center care, and which is 3.4 times the Mississippi price. The national average is $1,301 a month, or $15,612 a year, which sits between the two and which no family actually pays, because every family pays a state price, and the state price is the number that matters. The spread is the first thing to know about daycare costs, and it is the reason every article that quotes a national average should be read with the state table beside it, because the national average is a blend of fifty different markets and the blend is not a price.

State (infant, center)	Monthly	Annual	Share of median income	Two children
Mississippi, cheapest	$640	$7,680	8.8%	$15,360
National average	$1,301	$15,612	17.9%	$31,224
Massachusetts	$2,195	$26,340	30.1%	$52,680
Washington DC	$2,183	$26,193	29.9%	$52,386

Read the table against the median household income of $87,460, and the verdict changes by state. In Mississippi, one infant costs 8.8 percent of the median income, which is the only row on this table that sits near the 7 percent line the Department of Health and Human Services calls affordable, and which is $1,558 over the line. At the national average, one infant costs 17.9 percent, which is $9,490 over the line. In Massachusetts, one infant costs 30.1 percent, which is $20,218 over the line, and two children cost $52,680, which is 60.2 percent of the median income, and which is more than the rent, more than the mortgage, and more than the take-home pay of the lower earner in most two-income households. The state is not a detail. The state is the verdict, and the family that moves from Massachusetts to Mississippi for a job should price the child care before the salary, because the salary that looks like a raise can be a pay cut once the care is counted.

Why the price moves so far

The price moves with the wage of the caregiver, because child care is labor and labor is priced locally. Child Care Aware reports the average child care worker wage at $33,140 a year, which is the national figure, and the wage is higher in Massachusetts and DC and lower in Mississippi, because the cost of living is higher and lower in the same pattern, and the price of the slot is the wage divided by the children in the room plus the rent, the insurance, and the licensing costs. The staffing ratio is the multiplier: an infant room needs one adult for every three or four children, so the wage is divided by three or four, and a preschool room needs one adult for every ten or more, so the wage is divided by ten, and the price of the infant slot is therefore two to three times the price of the preschool slot in the same building, in the same state. The ratio is set by state licensing, and the licensing is stricter in some states than in others, which is a second reason the price moves: a state that requires one adult for every three infants charges more than a state that allows one for every four, because the same wage is divided by fewer children.

The rent is the second driver, and it is the reason the city costs more than the state. A center in a major metro costs 15 to 40 percent more than the state average, and a center in a small town costs 10 to 25 percent less, which is a rule of thumb from the shopping guides and not a published figure, but which is the reason the state average is a starting point and not a quote. The metro premium is the rent and the wage together, because the center pays city rent and the caregiver pays city rent, and both are priced into the slot. The posted-rate surveys show the same pattern at the metro level: Care.com's 2026 local rates put infant daycare at $2,580 a month in San Francisco and $2,431 in New York City, against $993 in Memphis, which is a spread of $1,587 a month inside the same country, and which is larger than the spread between the cheapest and the most expensive state in the table above. The state is the verdict, and the city is the margin, and the family that moves to a city should price the care in that city, not in that state.

The comparison that should worry a planner

Child Care Aware's 2024 analysis makes two comparisons that should worry any planner, because they frame the bill against the other lines in the household budget. In 45 states plus Washington DC, the price of care for two children in a center exceeds the average mortgage payment, and in 49 states plus DC it exceeds the median rent, by 19 percent to over 100 percent. The two-child bill at the national average is $31,224 a year, which is $2,602 a month, and the median rent in the United States is lower than that in all but one state, which means the second-largest line in the household budget is larger than the largest line, and the family is paying more for the care than for the roof. The comparison is the point of the 7 percent benchmark: the Department of Health and Human Services says child care should cost no more than 7 percent of family income, which on the median income is $6,122 a year, and the national average for one infant is $15,612, which is 2.5 times the benchmark, and for two children it is $31,224, which is 5.1 times the benchmark. The benchmark is not a goal. It is a measurement of how far the market is from affordable, and the measurement is that the market is two and a half times the benchmark for one child and five times for two.

The new insight

The cheapest state and the most expensive state differ by $18,660 a year for the same care, which is more than the whole Mississippi bill twice over, and which means the state a family lives in is worth more than any discount, any tax break, or any negotiation with a center. The largest saving on the tax page is $2,224, from the FSA and the payroll tax together. The largest saving from switching settings is $4,160 a year, from a center to a home daycare for one infant. The saving from living in Mississippi instead of Massachusetts is $18,660, which is four and a half times the setting saving and eight times the tax saving, and which is not a saving a family can claim, because families do not move for the daycare price, they move for the job, and the job is in Massachusetts. The insight is not that families should move. It is that the price is set by the labor market and the rent where the family already lives, and that the lever that matters most is the one the family cannot pull, which is why the levers that remain, the setting, the schedule, and the tax rules, are worth working in full, because they are the only ones available.

How to use the state table

The practical use of the state table is to replace the national average with the state figure before any other number is computed, because every other number on this site is priced off the rate, and the rate is set by the state. A family in Massachusetts that budgets the national average of $1,301 a month is short by $894 a month, or $10,728 a year, which is the gap between the plan and the bill, and which is the size of the surprise that breaks a budget. A family in Mississippi that budgets the national average is over by $661 a month, or $7,932 a year, which is money set aside for a bill that never arrives, and which is the better mistake to make, but still a mistake. The calculator on this site takes the quote in front of you, not the state average, and the quote is the number to enter, because the state average is itself a blend of cities and towns and programs, and the center across the street can be 40 percent above it or 25 percent below it. The state table is the starting point. The quote is the price. The annual bill is the cost. And the share of income is the verdict, which in Mississippi is 8.8 percent and in Massachusetts is 30.1 percent, for the same child in the same kind of room.

Sources

Child Care Aware of America, Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis, Tables I and II (infant center prices by state; Mississippi $640 a month, Massachusetts $2,195 a month; national average $1,301 a month; 45 states plus DC where two-child care exceeds mortgage payments; 49 states plus DC where it exceeds median rent by 19 percent to over 100 percent; child care prices up 29 percent in five years vs 22 percent overall inflation; average child care worker wage $33,140 a year). Child Care Aware of America, 2024 Price and Supply analysis (Washington DC infant center $26,193 a year). Care.com 2026 Cost of Care Report and October 2026 local rates (infant daycare $2,580 a month in San Francisco, $2,431 in New York City, $993 in Memphis; Seattle infant daycare $32,840 a year against San Antonio $11,580). U.S. Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2025 (median household income $87,460 in 2025). All calculator figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model.