As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Montgomery ranks the 134th largest city in the nation.

Infant center care in Montgomery costs $8,500 a year — among the lowest sticker prices in the country, and the reason the state capital ranks first in Alabama on the score. The same accounting that makes Montgomery look affordable, however, pays its childcare workers $10.45 an hour, the lowest median wage in the 250-city dataset. Half of Montgomery families with children are headed by one adult; nearly three-quarters of mothers with kids under six work. The math is consistent across the state: tuition is what families can bear, wages are what's left over, and supply covers about a third of demand.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Moderate-tier 53/100, ranked 105 of 250 — strongest in Alabama on $8,500 infant tuition (15.3% of $55,687 median income).
Workers earn $10.45/hr — the lowest median childcare wage in the 250-city index, at 50% of a single-adult living wage.
57% of families with children are single-parent, nearly double the 31.8% national rate; 74% of under-sixes have all parents working.

Actionable takeaways

Lowest median childcare wage in the country. Montgomery's $10.45/hr beats out all 250 cities for the floor — including Birmingham ($10.92) and Mobile ($10.55). The state capital hosting Alabama's child care licensing apparatus doesn't translate into a wage premium.
The "best in Alabama" framing hides supply scarcity. Montgomery ranks first in AL on score, but two-thirds of working-parent kids have no licensed center option — its 36-per-100 supply ratio is identical to bottom-ranked Birmingham.
Watch single-parent share against First Class Pre-K reach. With 57% single-parent households and only 41% of 4-year-olds enrolled in the state's high-quality pre-K, the families most dependent on the program are most likely to miss it.

Affordability — 86/100

A year of infant center care in Montgomery County costs about $8,500 — among the lowest in the country in absolute dollars. Against Montgomery's $55,687 median household income, that's 15.3% of pre-tax earnings, well below the 21.9% national share and below Alabama's 14.6% statewide average only because the state average is pulled down by lower-cost rural counties. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.67, meaning infant care costs about two-thirds of monthly rent — the inverse of the national pattern, where childcare typically exceeds rent.

A typical Montgomery family with one infant in center care pays roughly $8,600 less per year than the national median. That gap is the single biggest reason Montgomery ranks first in Alabama. Family child care homes are even cheaper at $7,545 annually. The catch, as in most of the state, is that affordability on paper doesn't guarantee a slot is available.

Supply — 46/100

Montgomery County has about 36 center slots per 100 children under five with working parents — identical to Birmingham's ratio, and well below the 73-per-100 national figure. With roughly 19,000 kids under five whose parents work and 6,900 estimated licensed center slots, two-thirds of working families have no licensed center option. The county does have 5.07 establishments per 1,000 young children, the strongest density of Alabama's three large cities, suggesting a more distributed (if smaller-scale) provider network.

Statewide, Alabama reports a 40.6% supply gap. Montgomery's gap is meaningfully larger.

Workforce — 2/100

Montgomery's childcare workers earn a median of $10.45/hr — the lowest median wage of any of the 250 cities in this index. Annualized, that's $21,730 for full-time work, or 50% of the local single-adult living wage. This isn't an Alabama anomaly: Birmingham ($10.92) and Mobile ($10.55) are nearly as low. Across the state, child care workers earn $10.78/hr at the median, less than 51.2% of what one adult needs to live independently in Alabama.

Affordability and worker pay are the two faces of the same coin in Alabama. Tuition is low because wages are low. Wages are low because tuition can't go higher — the median Montgomery family already pays 15% of income for one child. The ceiling on what families can pay sets the floor on what providers earn.

Family strain — 42/100

72.8% of Montgomery mothers with children under six are in the labor force, well above the 68.2% national rate. In a high-income city, this would signal strong access; in Montgomery, with $55,687 median household income, it more often reflects necessity. The single-parent share of families with children is 57% — nearly double the national 31.8% — meaning a majority of Montgomery's working mothers are also the household's only earner.

74% of Montgomery's children under six have all parents in the workforce, the highest such rate of Alabama's three big cities. The pressure on whatever childcare exists is correspondingly higher.

Policy support — 59/100

Alabama's First Class Pre-K meets all 10 NIEER quality benchmarks at $7,368 per child but enrolls only 41% of 4-year-olds and zero 3-year-olds. CCDF subsidy reaches 50.4% of eligible Alabama children. There is no state paid family leave. Montgomery, as the state capital, hosts the agencies that run these programs but doesn't get a different version of them.

In-home care in Montgomery

In-home care in Montgomery reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates in line with the broader Alabama market — generally a step below national norms because median household incomes are. Demand concentrates among dual-earner professional households in eastern Montgomery and the Pike Road area. Nanny shares are an increasingly common workaround when families want consistent in-home care but can't underwrite a full-time private caregiver alone.

Methodology: The the score is a 0-100 composite score across five dimensions: Affordability (30 pts), Supply (25 pts), Workforce Health (15 pts), Family Strain (15 pts), and Policy Support (15 pts). City-level prices and supply use the city's primary containing county. Policy Support is measured at the state level. Full methodology and data sources: beverly.io/research/methodology.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2019-2023 5-year estimates; U.S. Department of Labor Women's Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS (May 2024) and QCEW; Buffett Early Childhood Institute / Bipartisan Policy Center / Child Care Aware childcaregap.org (Sept 2025); NIEER State of Preschool Yearbook 2024; HHS ACF CCDF FY2023; National Partnership for Women & Families (March 2026).

Methodology. The State of Childcare Index is a 0-100 composite score across five dimensions: Affordability (30 pts), Supply (25 pts), Workforce Health (15 pts), Family Strain (15 pts), and Policy Support (15 pts). Each dimension draws on publicly available federal data: U.S. Census ACS (5-year), DOL Women's Bureau NDCP, BLS OEWS and QCEW, the Buffett/BPC/CCAoA childcaregap.org dataset, NIEER State of Preschool, and HHS ACF CCDF reports. City-level prices and supply use the city's primary containing county. Policy Support is measured at the state level. Full methodology and data sources: /research/methodology.