How much does child care cost in California?

Infants are 0 to 23 months, toddlers 24 to 35 months and preschool 36 to 54 months. Each bar is the middle of the county median prices.

Each dot is one California county: a year of infant care in a center (the weekly price times 52) as a share of the county's median family income. 58 of 58 counties are above 7%, the benchmark the federal government has used for affordable child care.

Median weekly price for full-time care for one child. A dash means the database has no price for that county and age group. Jump to a county:

AlamedaAlpineAmadorButteCalaverasColusaContra CostaDel NorteEl DoradoFresnoGlennHumboldtImperialInyoKernKingsLakeLassenLos AngelesMaderaMarinMariposaMendocinoMercedModocMonoMontereyNapaNevadaOrangePlacerPlumasRiversideSacramentoSan BenitoSan BernardinoSan DiegoSan FranciscoSan JoaquinSan Luis ObispoSan MateoSanta BarbaraSanta ClaraSanta CruzShastaSierraSiskiyouSolanoSonomaStanislausSutterTehamaTrinityTulareTuolumneVenturaYoloYuba

Typical county (middle of the county medians): infant center $353, toddler $217, preschool $190, school age $110; family child care home $246, $219, $207, $199.

• Prices come from the U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices (NDCP). The Women's Bureau built it from state market rate surveys of regulated providers, with a contractor standardizing every price to a full-time weekly rate. Most states are shown for 2022, the newest year in the database; where a state has no 2022 prices, we show its latest year and say so.
• Prices are not adjusted for inflation: each is in the dollars of its study year. A state shown for 2020 or 2021 can't be compared dollar for dollar with one shown for 2022.
• The Women's Bureau estimated some values: prices for years between state surveys were filled in with a straight-line trend, prices stated per hour, day or month were converted to weekly, and some counties carry a statewide or regional price, so many neighboring counties show exactly the same figure. The Women's Bureau's technical report (September 2024) lists the adjustments state by state, and it advises using the data at the county level.
• Age groups are approximate: infants are about 0 to 23 months, toddlers 24 to 35 months and preschool 36 to 54 months, plus the school-age price each state reports. States define the groups differently.
• Center means a child care facility with classrooms. Family child care home means a regulated provider who cares for a small group of children in their own home. Prices are meant as full-time weekly rates for one child, and what a family pays can differ with the provider, the hours and any subsidy. School-age prices in some states reflect before- and after-school care, so they may not match a full-time rate.
• Cost as a share of income is our calculation: the weekly price times 52 weeks, divided by the county's yearly median family income from the American Community Survey for the same year. The income is for all families in the county, not only those with young children, and families with lower incomes pay a larger share.
• A state's typical county is the middle one when you rank its counties by median price, with every county counted equally. It is not a statewide average and does not weight counties by their number of children. Where only a few counties have a price, the figure says little about the whole state.
• The federal government has long used 7% of family income as its benchmark for affordable child care. Each state page says how many of its counties are above it. This is a comparison, not advice or an eligibility rule.