As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Arvada ranks the 220th largest city in the nation.

Arvada is the only Colorado city in the index to clear the Strong tier, and the math behind that lift is almost entirely income. The Jefferson County suburb of about 125,000 carries a median household income of $113,396 — 22% above Denver, 36% above Greeley, 44% above the national median. Center-based infant care runs the same $22,000 every Front Range city pays on state-average pricing, but here it eats just 19% of pre-tax pay, below the national 22% figure. Mothers' labor-force participation among kids under six runs 78%, the highest in the Colorado cohort; the single-parent share runs 23%, near the bottom. The result is a family economy where childcare strain concentrates in dual-career middle-class households absorbing $22K a year, not in structurally fragile ones. Arvada ranks 20th of 250 — first in Colorado.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

20th nationally, score 65 (Strong) — Colorado's highest, top-25 in the country; affluent Jefferson County Denver suburb.
$113,396 median income pulls infant-care burden to 19% — the lowest in Colorado and 13 points better than Greeley.
Family-strain score 91 — the cluster's highest; 78% mothers' work participation and 23% single-parent share.

Actionable takeaways

Arvada is Colorado's only Strong-tier city, ranked 20th nationally. The lift comes almost entirely from a $113,396 median household income — 22% above Denver and 44% above the national median — that softens the same statewide childcare price every Front Range city pays.
Strain concentrates in dual-career middle class, not fragile households. With 78% mothers' LFP and 23% single-parent share, Arvada looks structurally different from Aurora and Greeley. The household whose math is hardest is the dual-earner middle-tier family quietly absorbing $22K a year.
Pricing is a state-average estimate. Jefferson County is not in the federal price database; the figure anchors to the 2024 CCAoA Colorado survey forward-projected to 2025 — note when contrasting Arvada with cities where county prices are observed.

Affordability — 56/100

Center-based infant care in Arvada runs about $22,000 a year — roughly $1,840 a month, or 19% of the city's $113,396 median household income. The price comes from statewide-average pricing data: the U.S. Department of Labor's National Database of Childcare Prices does not publish rates for Jefferson County, so the figure draws from Child Care Aware of America's 2024 Colorado survey forward-projected to 2025. Arvada's affordability advantage is income-driven, not price-driven. Infant care still costs roughly $4,860 more than the national median in absolute dollars, but Arvada's median household earns 22% more than Denver's, 36% more than Greeley's, and 44% more than the national median. As a share of income, the local burden falls below the national 22% — a rare position in this cohort and the reason Arvada lands a Strong tier where most of its neighbors land Strained or Moderate.

Supply — 50/100

Arvada has roughly 40 licensed slots for every 100 kids under five with working parents — outside the desert range but well below the national 73 per 100. Jefferson County licenses about 111 establishments serving an estimated 14,000 slots against demand from roughly 35,000 kids. Establishment density of 4.0 per 1,000 under-fives is the strongest in the Denver-metro suburban cluster. Arvada and Lakewood share the same county-level supply numbers but the higher local incomes give Arvada families more room to compete for the available slots — through earlier enrollment, multiple deposits, and willingness to commute.

Workforce — 85/100

The median Arvada childcare worker earns $18.62 an hour, or about $38,720 a year — reported at the Denver-Aurora MSA level. That same wage equals only 68% of MIT's living-wage threshold for the metro ($27.41/hr). The pattern matches the rest of metro Denver: solid nominal pay, real shortfall against Front Range housing costs. Arvada itself is one of the higher-rent submarkets in Jefferson County, which sharpens the gap further for workers who cannot afford to live in the city they serve.

Family strain — 91/100

About 78% of Arvada mothers with kids under six are in the labor force — ten points above the national 68% and the highest in the Colorado cohort. Single-parent share runs at 23%, the second-lowest in the Colorado cluster after Fort Collins. The combination produces one of the highest family-strain scores anywhere in the 250-city index: high household incomes, high two-earner participation, low precariousness. For Arvada families this means childcare strain is concentrated in dual-career middle-class households who can absorb $22K-a-year prices without the structural fragility seen in lower-income or single-parent-heavy cities.

Policy support — 65/100

Colorado's universal pre-K reaches about 70% of four-year-olds, with state per-child spending of $5,722 and 2 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks met. The state's FAMLI paid leave program, effective January 2024, offers up to 12 weeks at up to 90% wage replacement. CCDF subsidy reach is 12.7% statewide. Policy is measured at the state level; Arvada inherits Colorado's full mix.

In-home care in Arvada

In-home care in Arvada reflects broader Denver-metro nanny-market patterns, with full-time live-out rates running in line with the wider Front Range market. Arvada's higher household incomes and dual-career skew make it one of the stronger submarkets in the metro for full-time single-family placements. Nanny shares are common among dual-income tech and professional households, and au pair placements through J-1 sponsors offer schedule flexibility for parents with non-standard hours.

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; Child Care Aware of America 2024 state survey (Colorado pricing anchor); 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.