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

Illinois's capital posts the strongest workforce health score of any city in the Midwest 1 cluster — 97 out of 100 — because the median Springfield childcare worker earns $15.37 an hour against a Sangamon County living wage of $21.22, a 72.4% ratio that ranks among the better marks anywhere in the index. That outcome reflects a low cost-of-living base, not unusually high pay; the practical effect is providers here can compete more credibly on wages than their counterparts in metro Chicago. Yet Springfield's composite is 46/100, Strained. Infant tuition consumes 27.2% of household income, the childcare-to-rent ratio is 1.57, and 45.2% of families with children are headed by a single parent — thirteen points above the national figure. State-government employment provides stability without insulating families from the regional supply gap.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 46/100, Strained, ranked 162 of 250 — 3rd of 6 Illinois cities; infant care eats 27.2% of household income, childcare-to-rent ratio 1.57.
Workforce health score 97.0, the highest in the cluster; median childcare worker earns 72.4% of the local single-adult living wage.
Mothers' LFP for kids under six runs 78.4%, among the highest of any Illinois city; single-parent share 45.2%, 13 points above the national average.

Actionable takeaways

Disambiguate from Springfield, Missouri. Same name, different states, different scores — Illinois's capital is 46/100 with a 1.57 cost-to-rent ratio; the Missouri city is its own market. National roundups conflate them often.
The 97 workforce score is a low-cost-of-living artifact, not a wage win. Sangamon County's $21.22 living wage makes a $15.37/hr childcare wage look strong. If state-government salary growth lifts the Springfield housing market, the workforce score is the first metric to slip.
Watch state-government FMLA usage in Sangamon County. Springfield's public-sector employment base means a higher share of working parents have FMLA access than in metros like Rockford — but FMLA is unpaid, so the policy score doesn't capture the difference.

Affordability — 16/100

For a Springfield family with one infant in a licensed center, the annual bill runs about $17,821. Against a Springfield median household income of $65,537, that single tuition consumes 27.2% of pre-tax pay — meaningfully above the 22% federal affordability benchmark and the national 21.9%. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 1.57, meaning a year of infant care costs 57% more than a year of rent for the same household — the second-worst ratio in this cluster after Rockford. Family childcare homes drop the price to about $11,971 annually, which still consumes 18% of median household income for one child. Sangamon County's blended NDCP price reflects a small-metro provider base. The lived implication: a Springfield family pays roughly the same per-year dollar figure for infant care as a Joliet family, but absorbs about a third more of its paycheck doing so.

Supply — 44/100

Sangamon County's licensed capacity covers about 42 slots per 100 kids under five with working parents — identical to the rest of Illinois — and establishment density at 3.48 providers per 1,000 kids under five sits just below the state average. With about 5,551 estimated slots and 13,205 working-parent kids in the county service area, the gap is roughly the same proportionally as in the larger metros. The supply story in Springfield is structurally similar to the rest of the state, just at smaller absolute scale.

Workforce — 97/100

The median Springfield childcare worker earns $15.37 an hour, about $31,970 annually. Against a Sangamon County single-adult living wage of $21.22, that wage covers 72.4% — the strongest ratio in the Midwest 1 cluster and one of the better workforce health scores in the national index. The high score is a function of Springfield's lower cost of living rather than unusually high childcare wages. The practical effect is that providers here have somewhat more room to compete on pay against alternative employers than providers in higher-cost Illinois metros do.

Family strain — 57.8/100

Mothers' labor force participation among kids under six is 78.4% — well above the national 68.2% and the highest figure among Illinois cities in this report. With a 45.2% single-parent share — 13 points above the national average — that high LFP reflects economic necessity rather than slack capacity. Springfield's role as the state capital means a substantial share of the workforce is in state government and adjacent professional services, which provides relatively stable income but has not insulated families from the 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 has no paid family or medical leave program, and CCDF reaches 20.1% of eligible kids. Springfield inherits the Illinois score. The state-government employment base here means a larger share of working parents have access to FMLA leave protections than in private-sector-heavy metros — though FMLA is unpaid, so it does not appear in the policy score.

In-home care in Springfield

In-home care in Springfield typically reflects smaller-market downstate Illinois patterns, with full-time live-out nanny rates below those in metro Chicago counties. With center care consuming 27% of household income and a high single-parent share, formal in-home arrangements are less common here than informal caregiver and grandparent care; nanny shares show up most often among the city's professional households when standard center hours don't match shift schedules.

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 (Sangamon County for Springfield). 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.