The Best -- and Worst -- States for Child Care, Ranked in Order

This week, Care.com introduced the Care Index, the first comprehensive data report on the current state of child care in the U.S., which ranks states based on quality, affordability and availability.

The big question is: where does your state rank?

With the average cost of child care coming in at about $18,000 per year — equivalent to the national average housing cost — new parents are in for a rude awakening when they look into child care centers and nannies.

And when it comes to quality and availability, they are often faced with an even more difficult reality.

Map of the Top Ten States for Child Care

Care.com analyzed how each state ranks when it comes to child care cost, quality and availability. Providing equal weight to all three qualifying factors, the Care Index shows that even in the best states, families face trade-offs when searching for low-cost, high-quality child care that’s available when they need it.

Child Care Ranking of All 50 States

When it came to the best in the country, the East Coast — and specifically the Northeast — fared the best, while many southern states ranked near the bottom.

Rank	State	Cost	Quality	Availability
1.	Connecticut	24	2	2
2.	New Hampshire	2	14	3
3.	Massachusetts	39	3	1
4.	Rhode Island	10	25	4
5.	Minnesota	4	4	23
6.	Vermont	18	10	5
7.	Maryland	7	15	12
8.	Maine	11	17	9
9.	New Jersey	20	38	6
10.	Hawaii	8	1	49
11.	Virginia	12	26	10
12.	Wyoming	3	5	44
13.	Delaware	14	39	7
14.	Pennsylvania	21	19	13
15.	Iowa	6	9	34
16.	North Dakota	1	49	24
17.	Colorado	25	27	16
18.	Georgia	31	13	14
19.	Florida	30	18	15
20.	Missouri	22	16	27
21.	Nebraska	5	48	28
22.	Michigan	19	43	18
23.	Wisconsin	15	40	22
24.	South Carolina	34	7	20
25.	North Carolina	40	12	11
26.	Idaho	9	11	46
27.	Oregon	29	29	25
28.	Illinois	37	28	17
29.	Washington	33	33	19
30.	Montana	17	41	32
31.	Texas	16	45	38
32.	Indiana	36	6	33
33.	Arkansas	28	24	42
34.	California	32	31	31
35.	Kansas	27	35	36
36.	South Dakota	23	32	45
37.	Alabama	41	8	29
38.	Utah	13	37	48
39.	New York	45	42	8
40.	Ohio	35	47	21
41.	Arizona	38	30	43
42.	Louisiana	44	22	40
43.	Kentucky	42	34	30
44.	Tennessee	47	21	26
45.	Alaska	26	46	50
46.	Oklahoma	43	44	39
47.	Nevada	48	36	41
48.	New Mexico	46	20	47
49.	Mississippi	49	23	35
50.	West Virginia	50	50	37

Takeaways

So what should parents do if they don’t feel that the quality of their child care is up to par? Or if their state didn’t make the Care.com Top 10 List?

If you have reason to believe your child care isn’t sufficient, especially in terms of quality, it’s important to make a change.

Here are some suggestions:

Look for locally approved N.A.E.Y.C. and N.A.F.C.C. child care centers.
Get on community message boards and ask friends for their local suggestions. Really dig into why they love their center.
Discuss your concerns with your child care center and see how you and some other parents might be able to initiate change. Take a list of concerns and suggestions to the center director. A large group of concerned parents can make a big difference. You can even start a private message board to discuss your center in the Care.com community.
Create a “dream nanny” job description and send it out to friends and neighbors, and post it on Care.com. Add the hourly rate that you’re comfortable paying, and see who applies. The idea behind a site like Care.com is that people who aren’t interested won’t apply.
> How to hire a nanny from start to finish
If the cost of a nanny is too high, consider a nanny share, in which two families pay for one nanny, thus cutting their care costs in half.
> 7 questions to ask when touring a day care center
> 8 signs of a bad day care center
> 5 must-have nanny qualifications

Methodology

The Care Index is a ranking of all 50 states based on the cost, quality and availability of paid child care in each state, combining both in-home caregiving and child care center data. For more information on how cost, quality and availability are determined, go to Care.com/care-index.

The Care Index draws on unique proprietary data from Care.com member job postings and caregiver reviews, as well as publicly available data from the US Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). A survey conducted by Care.com and New America in October 2015 provides additional data on paid child care arrangements in each state among households with children.