Childcare & Early Childhood · Facts & Figures
U.S. Childcare Workforce, Cost & Early Learning
Explore the workforce that provides care, what families pay, how parents arrange care, and the early-learning professionals serving young children.
Interactive comparison
Early childhood workforce
Switch between workforce scale, pay, projected openings, and family care arrangements.
Workforce
Childcare depends on a large workforce with substantial replacement demand
A declining employment projection does not mean few hiring opportunities: BLS expects many childcare-worker openings as people transfer occupations or leave the labor force.
Pay & early educators
Pay differs by role and work setting
| Role / setting | Pay benchmark | Period | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childcare workers — median | $15.41/hour | May 2024 | All childcare workers |
| Childcare workers — local schools | $17.33/hour | May 2024 | Median in local elementary & secondary schools |
| Childcare workers — child daycare services | $14.56/hour | May 2024 | Median in child daycare services |
| Preschool teachers | $37,120/year | May 2024 | Median annual wage |
BLS notes that pay varies with education and setting; workers in formal settings and those with more education generally earn more.
Cost of care
The national average price of child care reached $13,128 in 2024
Price is not the same as provider cost or what every family pays. Child Care Aware of America compiles state-reported market prices; actual family expenses vary by child age, provider type, geography, subsidies, and schedule.
How families arrange care
Families use a mix of relatives, centers, preschool, home-based care, and other arrangements
Parents could report multiple care types, so arrangement percentages are not intended to sum to 100%. “No listed formal arrangement” can include parental care, access constraints, or older children who do not require regular care.
Early learning
Preschool teaching is projected to grow even as childcare-worker employment contracts
NCES also maintains national data on children from birth through age 5 who are not yet in kindergarten, including care arrangements, parents’ difficulty finding care, reasons for difficulty, and early learning activities at home.
What the data shows
Child care is simultaneously a workforce, affordability, and access issue
Nearly one million childcare workers form the core occupational workforce, yet BLS projects employment to edge down while still generating about 160,200 openings each year. At the same time, the national average price of care has risen above $13,000 per year, and Census data show families rely on a broad mix of formal and informal arrangements.
That combination makes workforce supply, provider economics, family affordability, and access important to examine together rather than as isolated statistics.
Methodology & sources
About these figures
Workforce, wage, and projection figures come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook and Employment Projections. Family arrangement percentages come from the U.S. Census Bureau Household Pulse Survey and are shown with their 2022 reference period. The national child care price is from Child Care Aware of America’s 2024 Price & Supply reporting. NCES provides the framework for future expansion into early childhood program participation.
Workforce: BLS — Childcare Workers · Preschool teachers: BLS — Preschool Teachers · Care arrangements: U.S. Census Bureau · Early childhood participation: NCES.
CalculateMeasure refresh: Aug. 22, 2026 · Review cadence: Annual, with source-triggered review when BLS, Census, NCES, or Child Care Aware publishes a newer benchmark.
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