As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Cape Coral ranks the 103rd largest city in the nation.

Cape Coral is one of southwest Florida's fastest-growing markets, and Lee County's establishment density — 3.2 licensed centers per 1,000 young children — has not caught up. The city's $76,062 median household income, $4,400 above the state median, holds infant tuition to a manageable 17.1% of pre-tax pay and lifts the overall score to 62/100, sixth in Florida. The trade-off shows up on the workforce dimension: 22, the weakest reading on this Florida page. Workers earn $14.60 an hour against a $25.25 living wage, absorbing the gap between what families can pay and what providers need to retain staff. As long as that gap holds, supply will lag demand at the infant tier.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Moderate-tier 62/100, ranked 34 of 250 — sixth in Florida; affordability score 82, workforce 22.
Family strain 73/100 — 74.8% mothers' LFP and 33.1% single-parent share below Florida's 35.0%.
Workers earn $14.60/hr at 57.8% of a $25.25 living wage; establishment density 3.2 per 1,000 trails Florida's 4.05.

Actionable takeaways

Lee County is the clearest "growth outpaced supply" case in Florida. 3.2 establishments per 1,000 young children is the thinnest density on the FL page — and it's a working-age in-migration story, not a chronic underserve. License-application volume vs. center openings would be the metric to FOIA.
Workforce score 22 is the weakest reading on the Florida page. Cape Coral pays the lowest workforce-pay-to-living-wage ratio (57.8%) of any Florida city in this report — the structural reason the supply gap won't close even as the population grows.
Compare against Port St. Lucie's structurally similar profile. Both are Treasure Coast/SW FL suburbs with above-state-median income absorbing FL-average tuition; Cape Coral's establishment density gap is what differentiates the two scores.

Affordability — 82/100

A year of infant center care in Lee County runs about $13,043 — roughly in line with the Florida state average of $13,439 and meaningfully below national pricing. Cape Coral's Strong-leaning affordability score reflects local incomes absorbing those prices reasonably well. Median household income in the city is $76,062 — roughly $4,400 above the Florida median — which puts the cost-of-care-as-share-of-income at 17.1%, well below the 21.9% national share.

The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.62. A typical Cape Coral family pays roughly $1,087 per month for infant center care against $1,751 in median gross rent. Care costs about 62 cents on the rent dollar. For a family at the city median, infant tuition consumes nearly $1,800 less per year as a share of income than the national norm. Family child care homes ($10,790/year for an infant) provide a useful step down for families with two children in care.

Supply — 53/100

Lee County has roughly 55 licensed center slots for every 100 children under five with working parents — short of full coverage but comfortably above the desert threshold. With about 44,000 kids under five whose parents work and roughly 24,400 estimated licensed slots county-wide, nearly half of the demand-side population is in informal arrangements, on a waitlist, or with a parent who has stepped back from work.

Lee's 112 licensed establishments produce 3.2 per 1,000 young children — below both the Florida (4.05) and national (4.21) averages. That is the thinnest provider density on this Florida page, and it reflects a fast-growing southwest Florida population that has outpaced licensed-center expansion. The constraint is most visible at the infant tier and during peak fall enrollment.

Workforce — 22/100

Cape Coral childcare workers earn a median of $14.60/hr, or about $30,370 a year for full-time work. That is 57.8% of the local single-adult living wage of $25.25/hr. The workforce score of 22 is the weakest of Cape Coral's five dimensions and the weakest workforce reading among the ten Florida cities in this report.

A worker earning $14.60/hr in a metro with $1,751 rents and $13,043 infant tuition is absorbing the gap families don't see on the invoice. Centers raising wages must raise tuition; centers holding tuition can't retain staff. With Lee County's establishment density already running below the state average, the wage floor is part of why supply has not caught up to a fast-growing southwest Florida demand base.

Family strain — 73/100

74.8% of Cape Coral mothers with children under six are in the labor force — well above the 68.2% national rate and above Florida's 69.6%. In a city with a $76K median household income, that figure reads as evidence of accessible care arrangements rather than pure economic necessity. The single-parent share is 33.1% — close to the national average (31.8%) and below the Florida average (35.0%), which helps two-earner households absorb the $13,043 infant tuition bill.

Cape Coral's demographic story is shifting underneath the data: the metro is one of southwest Florida's fastest-growing markets, attracting working-age families alongside its long-standing retiree population. The pressure on under-five capacity has been one consequence.

Policy support — 69/100

Florida's Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten reaches 65% of 4-year-olds — among the broadest reach in the country — but at $2,838 per child in state spending, the program is funded at less than half the national per-child average. NIEER credits Florida with 5 of 10 quality benchmarks. CCDF subsidy reach is 30.5%, serving roughly 113,000 Florida children monthly. Florida has no state paid family leave. Policy support is measured at the state level; the score is identical for Cape Coral, Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville.

In-home care in Cape Coral

In-home care in Cape Coral typically reflects the broader southwest Florida nanny market, with full-time live-out rates in line with the wider Cape Coral-Fort Myers metro. Demand has risen alongside the working-age in-migration of the past several years. Nanny shares between two families are a familiar workaround for infant care, particularly given Lee County's center-establishment density running below the state average. Au pair placements through the State Department's J-1 sponsor agencies are a smaller but growing channel for families wanting full-time in-home coverage at a different cost structure than a sole-charge nanny.

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.