$23,000 Per Year: DC Ranks Highest in Infant Child Care Costs

Washington, D.C. ranks highest in child care costs in the nation, according to a new study out by USA ChildCare Aware.

The average child care center cost for an infant in DC is $22,631 per year, according to the study. The study notes that the cost for a 4-year old in DC is $17,842; for “family child care,” which is care for a child at someone’s home, the cost is $16,006 for an infant in DC, $13,668 for a 4-year old in DC.

The state with the lowest cost child care for an infant was Alabama, with $5,637 for a child care center and $4,801 at a “family child care” center.

In 2014, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that families with two children spend no more than 10 percent of their income on child care. Almost nowhere in the U.S. are families able to meet that threshold, the report found.

That means a couple or single parent would need to make more than $220,000 per year to handle the average costs for childcare in DC.

The average cost of center-based daycare in the United States is $11,666 per year ($972 a month), but prices range from $3,582 to $18,773 a year ($300 to $1,564 monthly), according to the National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies (NACCRRA). Looks like DC tops that range.

The annual cost of child care for an infant, which Economic Policy Institute defines as a 1-year-old child, exceeded the average price of a year of in-state tuition at a public 4-year college in 33 states and the District of Columbia in 2014.