As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Fort Collins ranks the 156th largest city in the nation.
Fort Collins is a Colorado State University college town with a stable two-earner middle class — 73% mothers' labor-force participation, 24.6% single-parent share, both at the lower end of the Colorado cohort. The arithmetic still pinches: center-based infant care runs about $22,000 a year on Colorado state-average pricing, eating 26% of the city's $83,598 median household income, in line with the worst-affordability Front Range cities. The college-town economy keeps household incomes lower than the Denver suburbs while childcare costs run at the same statewide bar — a particularly sharp squeeze for CSU staff, postdocs, and early-career faculty households. Larimer County licenses 3.7 establishments per 1,000 children under five, slightly above the state average. Fort Collins ranks 120th of 250 — sixth of nine Colorado cities.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- 120th nationally, score 51 (Moderate) — sixth of nine Colorado cities, with the cluster's strongest family-strain score.
- 73% of mothers with kids under six in the labor force — five points above national, distinctly high for a college-anchored metro.
- Infant care still eats 26% of household income on state-average pricing — in line with the worst-affordability Colorado cities.
Actionable takeaways
- The CSU squeeze is the local story. Postdocs, early-career faculty, and university staff making roughly the city median absorb the same $22,000 infant bill that Denver suburbs pay, on incomes that haven't kept up. CSU benefits offices and graduate-student housing offices are the natural sources for the human side.
- Note the data caveat. Larimer County prices are not in the federal database; the $22,000 figure anchors to the 2024 Child Care Aware Colorado survey forward-projected to 2025. Local center directors can confirm or refute against their own published rates.
- Strain dimension is the bright spot. Fort Collins posts the cluster's strongest family-strain score (82) on a 73% mothers' LFP and 24.6% single-parent share — the textbook stable-two-earner college-town profile. Worth contrasting against Aurora and Greeley in the same state.
Affordability — 25/100
Center-based infant care in Fort Collins runs about $22,000 a year — roughly $1,840 a month, or 26% of the city's $83,598 median household income. That figure is statewide-average pricing data: the U.S. Department of Labor's National Database of Childcare Prices does not publish rates for Larimer County, so the price draws from Child Care Aware of America's 2024 Colorado survey forward-projected to 2025. Fort Collins families pay roughly $4,860 more per year for an infant slot than the national median, and infant care exceeds median monthly rent by 11%. The college-town economy keeps household incomes lower than the Denver suburbs while childcare costs run at the same statewide bar — a particularly sharp squeeze for Colorado State University staff, postdocs, and early-career faculty households.
Supply — 45/100
Fort Collins has roughly 40 licensed slots for every 100 kids under five with working parents — short of the desert threshold but far below the national 73 per 100. Larimer County licenses about 59 establishments serving an estimated 8,300 slots against demand from roughly 20,800 kids. Establishment density of 3.7 per 1,000 under-fives is slightly above the state average. Within Colorado the supply picture is less acute than in Denver-metro suburbs, but the absolute math still points to roughly three out of five children needing care without a licensed slot.
Workforce — 69/100
The median Fort Collins childcare worker earns $17.16 an hour, or about $35,690 a year — solid by national standards and below Denver-metro pay. That same wage equals 64% of MIT's living-wage threshold for Larimer County ($26.76/hr). The local cost of living is higher than the wage scaling suggests, in part because of student-driven rental demand around the CSU campus. Provider retention pressure in Fort Collins is a function of competing employers — the university, the hospital system, and Front Range food and beverage manufacturing all draw from the same shallow labor pool.
Family strain — 82/100
About 73% of Fort Collins mothers with kids under six are in the labor force — five points above the national average and among the highest rates in the Colorado cohort (behind only Arvada at 78%). Single-parent share runs at 24.6%, near the bottom of the Colorado cohort (only Arvada and Thornton are lower) and well below the national 32%. The combination — high mothers' work participation, low single-parenthood — is the textbook profile of a college-anchored metro with a stable two-earner middle class. Childcare strain still exists, but it is concentrated in dual-career households making roughly the city median, not in the structurally precarious population that defines strain elsewhere.
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; Fort Collins inherits Colorado's full mix.
In-home care in Fort Collins
In-home care in Fort Collins tracks broader Northern Colorado nanny-market patterns, with full-time live-out rates running in line with the wider Front Range market. The CSU presence shapes the labor supply side — a steady pool of education and child-development students looking for part-time and after-school work makes Fort Collins one of the more flexible markets in the region for nanny-share and occasional-care arrangements. Au pair placements remain a smaller channel, more common among dual-academic households.
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).