As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Naperville ranks the 178th largest city in the nation.

Same DuPage County, same $21,613 a year for an infant in a licensed center — yet Naperville families absorb the bill in fourteen percent of pre-tax pay, against twenty-nine percent in Chicago twenty-eight miles east. The Naperville median household earns $150,937, nearly double the national figure, and the city tops Illinois at 62/100 (33rd nationally) almost entirely on the strength of that income base. Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six runs 63.9%, below the state and national averages — a signal that more households can afford a stay-at-home parent and many do. Just 15.0% of families with children are headed by a single parent, less than half the national rate. Same provider rates, two different economies.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

First in Illinois, score 62 (Moderate), ranked 33 of 250; affordability score 77.7 anchored by a $150,937 median household income.
Infant center care still costs $21,613 a year — identical to Chicago — but consumes 14.3% of household income, half Chicago's 28.8% burden.
Single-parent share 15.0%, less than half the national rate and the lowest in the Midwest 1 cluster.

Actionable takeaways

Naperville is the cleanest case study of income geography reshaping a uniform price. Same DuPage County $21,613 infant rate as Aurora, but a $61,000 income gap collapses the affordability burden from 24% to 14%. The provider market is regional; the family experience isn't.
Read the 63.9% mothers' LFP as choice, not constraint. Below national and state averages, in a city with this income profile, signals more households can afford a stay-at-home parent. That's a different policy story than Chicago or Aurora.
Watch private pre-K access, not CCDF. With Illinois at 35% public 4-year-old enrollment and Naperville's income base largely above subsidy thresholds, the binding affordability question here is private pre-K and full-day kindergarten, not the state's CCDF reach.

Affordability — 78/100

A Naperville family with one infant in a licensed center pays about $21,613 a year — the same DuPage County price that Chicago, Aurora, and Joliet families face. What changes the picture is income. The Naperville median household earns $150,937, nearly twice the national median, which drops infant tuition to 14.3% of pre-tax pay. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.97, meaning a year of infant care still costs slightly less than a year of rent here — one of the few Illinois cities where that ratio falls below 1.0. The lived implication: a Naperville household covers infant care with about seven weeks of gross pay. A median Chicago family needs roughly fifteen weeks of pay for the same tuition. Same county, same provider rates, two different economies.

Supply — 56/100

DuPage County licensed capacity covers about 42 seats per 100 kids under five with working parents, the same figure that applies across Cook County and the Chicago suburbs. Naperville itself is provider-dense — 4.26 licensed establishments per 1,000 kids under five, above the state average. With about 26,977 estimated licensed slots against 64,174 working-parent kids in the county service area, supply is tighter than the headline density suggests. Naperville families face the same wait-list reality as the rest of metro Chicago, even though more of them can absorb the price when a slot opens.

Workforce — 62/100

The median DuPage County childcare worker earns $16.40 an hour — about $34,110 annually — which works out to 63.6% of the local single-adult living wage. The wage figure pools across the metro; in higher-cost Naperville, the practical pinch on workers is sharper because rent and groceries scale with the median income, not with the wage. The result is the recruiting churn visible across affluent suburbs nationally: providers compete for the same pool of qualified educators against retail and hospitality employers paying within a few dollars of the same hourly rate.

Family strain — 60.4/100

Mothers' labor force participation among kids under six is 63.9% in Naperville — below both the Illinois (71.5%) and national (68.2%) averages. In a city with this income profile, lower mothers' LFP reads as choice rather than constraint: a higher share of households can afford a stay-at-home parent, and many do. The 15.0% single-parent share — less than half the national rate — reinforces the same pattern. Naperville's family strain score is held back not by acute pressure but by the structural fact that even high-income families face the same regional supply gap.

Policy support — 44.6/100

Illinois enrolls 35% of 4-year-olds in state pre-K — below the 45% national average — with $6,171 per-child spending and 8 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks met. The state offers no paid family or medical leave, and CCDF reaches 20.1% of eligible children. Naperville inherits the Illinois score; affluent suburbs typically draw less from CCDF subsidies, so the practical impact of the policy gap here falls more on private pre-K access than on public assistance.

In-home care in Naperville

In-home care in Naperville reflects the broader metro Chicago nanny market, with full-time live-out rates that typically run in the upper portion of the regional range — DuPage County and the western suburbs are well-known nanny-employing geographies. Au pair placements through State Department-designated J-1 sponsors are common here for the same reason: dual-professional households with the home space, schedule complexity, and budget that fit the program. Nanny shares are also visible, often organized through neighborhood networks, as families look for ways to keep effective hourly costs in reach without sacrificing the 1:1 to 1:2 ratio that distinguishes in-home care from group settings.

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 (DuPage County for Naperville). 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.