About DaycareLedger

DaycareLedger is an independent reference site for US childcare and daycare cost data. We turn the federal childcare-price database into clear, comparable pages: how much daycare costs by state, county, child age and care type — and, just as important, what share of a family's income that represents.

What we publish

• Median childcare prices for 49 states and DC and the 60 largest US counties.
• Prices by age group (infant, toddler, preschool, school-age) and care setting (center-based vs family).
• Childcare as a share of median household income, against the 7% federal affordability benchmark.
• Rankings, a cost calculator, and plain-English guides.

Where the data comes from

Every price comes from the U.S. DOL Women's Bureau — National Database of Childcare Prices, a public-domain federal dataset. We annualize the published weekly medians and compute income shares transparently — we never inflate or invent figures. See our methodology for sources, the reference year, and every derivation, and our disclaimer for limits.

Contact

Questions or corrections? Get in touch.