Flourish/Map of Childcare costs by state
By Theo Burman
Live News Reporter
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New data on child care costs across the U.S. has revealed which states are the most expensive to look after children.
The data, gathered by budgeting site Bankrate, shows the breakdown of what families spend on infant care as a proportion of their income, revealing that in most states, families are spending over 10 percent of their income on child-care costs.
When mapped by Newsweek, the data reveals that in some states, child care could even reach more than 20 percent of a family's income. All statistics were calculated for families with one child.
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The state with the most expensive child-care as a proportion of income was New Mexico, where families spend an average of 20.5 percent on supporting infants. The second most expensive state was Hawaii, at 20.1 percent, closely followed by New York's 19.6 percent.
By contrast, South Dakota was the state in which families are spending the smallest portion of their income on child care, with an average of just 8.7 percent. Its neighbor North Dakota was second on the list, with an average of 9.8 percent. Utah was third with 10.3.
The most expensive state by the dollar was Massachusetts, where average annual child-care costs came in at $24,000. Hawaii was similarly expensive at $22,000, while Washington and Minnesota ranked third and fourth at around 20,000 dollars a year.
The cheapest states were South Dakota, and Mississippi, which both saw families spend around $8,000 a year on child-care costs.
New Mexico ranked toward the average for costs by the dollar, with an average expenditure of around $13,000. however, average salaries in the border state are significantly lower than the rest of the country, meaning families have to spend more of their income on the same prices.
According to Bank of America, the average family. spends $700 a month on child care. In New York specifically, costs have climbed 46 percent since 2019, according to The Century Foundation.
Additionally, a study released in September found that child-care now costs 39.4 percent more than rent in 100 of the largest cities in the country.
While President-elect Donald Trump did not make any specific pledged on child care policy, Vice President-elect JD Vance did, saying that he supports a $5,000 child tax credit, which could be an indication of a future Trump administration policy.
Newsweek contacted the Trump transition team for clarification on their stance.
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