@wallstreetjournal: Every working parent knows that it is staggeringly expensive to put a child through daycare—but it depends a lot on where you live. The median cost of sending one child to daycare for five years is about $44,000 across the U.S., according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Labor Department data. In 26 counties, the median cost for five years of daycare is more than $100,000. The child-care industry is a crucial piece of what makes the U.S. run. The economy needs workers in order to function. The government needs taxpaying citizens to fill its coffers. But in the U.S., the cost of caring for and educating young children tends to fall solely on parents. And many of those families can’t make the math work. For each county, the Journal used the Labor Department data to calculate the daycare-center cost of one year of infant care, two years of toddler care and two years of preschool—the years leading up to kindergarten. The total median cost for the most expensive area, Arlington County, Va., was nearly $147,000. Wayne County, Ky., was the least expensive, at roughly $24,000. Researchers say that the differences in cost are likely due, in large part, to huge variations across the U.S. in real-estate costs and workers’ pay. Explore our interactive map to see where your county stands and read more about what it costs to raise a child in 2025. #wsj

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Friday 22 August 2025 15:51:54 GMT