As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Coral Springs ranks the 210th largest city in the nation.
Coral Springs ranks ninth of 250 US cities and second in Florida, and the explanation is unambiguous: a $90,643 median household income, roughly $12,000 above the national median, that absorbs Broward County's $14,750 infant tuition at just 16.3% of pre-tax pay — the lowest cost-of-care burden of any Florida city in the index. The Broward suburb is also the rare Florida city with a single-parent share (31.4%) below the national average, and 77.8% of mothers with children under six work, on schedules that hold. The data tells the upper-suburban story cleanly. The footnote is the workforce that makes it possible: $15.30 an hour against a $25.86 living wage, the same Broward-wide reading.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Strong-tier 68/100, ranked 9 of 250 — second in Florida, top 10 nationally; affordability 90/100.
- Cost of care 16.3% of $90,643 household income — lowest infant burden in any Florida city in the index.
- Single-parent share 31.4% — below national 31.8% and well below Florida 35.0%; family strain score 81.
Actionable takeaways
- Coral Springs is Florida's upper bound on what household income alone can buy. 9th nationally, 2nd in Florida, on a $90,643 median household income absorbing the same $14,750 Broward tuition every neighbor faces. The score reads what affluent Broward suburbia produces inside the FL policy floor — and it caps at "Strong," not "Excellent."
- One of few Florida cities with single-parent share below the national average. 31.4% vs. national 31.8% and FL 35.0% — Coral Springs' family-structure profile is structurally suburban, the more important driver of the strain score (81) than mothers' LFP alone.
- The Broward workforce floor is the same in Coral Springs as in Hollywood. The most affluent and least affluent Broward cities pay the same $15.30/hr to childcare workers — meaning the workforce dimension can't be improved by local affluence and waits on county or state action.
Affordability — 90/100
A year of infant center care in Broward County runs about $14,750 — meaningfully above the Florida state average of $13,439 and reflecting metro South Florida pricing. Coral Springs' Strong affordability score is not a price story; it is an income story. Median household income in the city is $90,643 — roughly $19,000 above the Florida median and $12,000 above the national median — which compresses the cost-of-care-as-share-of-income to 16.3%. That is the lowest infant burden of any Florida city in the index.
The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.63. A typical Coral Springs family pays roughly $1,229 per month for infant center care against $1,951 in median gross rent. Care costs about 63 cents on the rent dollar. For a family at the city median, infant tuition consumes about $2,400 less per year as a share of income than the national norm. Family child care homes ($11,155/year for an infant) offer a meaningful step down, useful for families with two children in care.
Supply — 59/100
Broward 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 of 33. With about 132,000 kids under five whose parents work and roughly 73,100 estimated licensed slots, nearly half of the demand-side population is in informal arrangements, on a waitlist, or with a parent who has stepped back from work.
Broward's 387 licensed establishments produce 3.6 per 1,000 young children — slightly below the Florida (4.05) and national (4.21) averages. That density is the constraint behind a Strong-tier city ranking only middling on supply: Coral Springs has the income to pay for care but the county's provider density is on the thin side of the South Florida average.
Workforce — 28/100
Coral Springs childcare workers — measured at the Broward County metro level — earn a median of $15.30/hr, or about $31,810 a year for full-time work. That is 59.2% of the local single-adult living wage of $25.86/hr. The workforce score of 28 is the weakest of Coral Springs' five dimensions and the same Broward-wide reading that pulls down every Broward city in this report.
Workers earning $15.30/hr against $1,951 rents and $14,750 infant tuition are absorbing the gap families don't see on the invoice. Centers that try to raise wages must raise tuition into a price band that even Coral Springs' high incomes would feel; centers that try to hold tuition can't retain staff. The Strong-tier overall ranking should not obscure the structural finding: Coral Springs' affordability is partly underwritten by Broward's underpaid workforce.
Family strain — 81/100
77.8% of Coral Springs mothers with children under six are in the labor force — well above the 68.2% national rate, above Florida's 69.6%, and one of the highest readings among Florida cities. In a city with a $90K median household income and a 31.4% single-parent share (the lowest in our Florida sample), that figure reads clearly as a sign of accessible care. These mothers are working because they have arrangements that hold.
The 31.4% single-parent share is the second key number on this page. It is below the national average (31.8%) and well below the Florida average (35.0%). Two-earner households can absorb a $14,750 infant tuition bill in a way single-parent households cannot, and Coral Springs' family structure is closer to the upper end of US suburbia than to South Florida's urban core.
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 Coral Springs, Miami, Tampa, and Jacksonville.
In-home care in Coral Springs
In-home care in Coral Springs typically reflects the broader Broward and South Florida nanny market, with full-time live-out rates in line with metro Miami-Fort Lauderdale norms. Demand is concentrated in the dual-earner households that drive the city's $90K median income and 78% mothers' labor force participation. Nanny shares between two families are a familiar workaround for infant care in the metro, where Broward's slot density runs below the state average. Au pair placements through the State Department's J-1 sponsor agencies are a smaller but growing channel for families seeking 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).