As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Springfield ranks the 157th largest city in the nation.

Springfield's $9,259 annual infant tuition is the lowest figure in the entire Midwest 3 cohort — about $7,900 below the national center median, and the only city in this cohort where monthly center care costs less than monthly rent. Yet the composite is 44/100, Strained, ranked 182 of 250. The drag sits in two places. Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six runs 62.5%, below the national 68%, signaling that the affordability advantage is partly offset by weaker local labor demand. And Greene County's $45,984 median household income — the lowest in the cohort by a wide margin — keeps the burden ratio at 20.1% even on the country's friendliest center prices. The childcare market is partly self-limiting: low LFP among mothers reduces the demand pressure that would otherwise push prices and supply gaps wider.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 44/100, Strained, ranked 182 of 250 — third of Missouri's four indexed cities; infant care runs $9,259/yr, the lowest in the cohort.
Mothers' LFP for kids under six runs 62.5%, below the national 68%; affordability advantage offset by weak labor demand.
Median household income $45,984 — the lowest in the cohort by a wide margin; keeps burden ratio at 20.1% on the cheapest center prices.

Actionable takeaways

Disambiguate from Springfield, Illinois. Same name, different states, different scores — Missouri's Springfield is 44/100 with cohort-cheapest pricing; Illinois's is 46/100 with the cluster's strongest workforce score. National coverage routinely blurs them.
The local angle is the self-limiting market dynamic. With 62.5% mothers' LFP — below national — and the lowest household income in the cohort, Springfield's cheap prices reflect weak demand pressure, not policy success. The structural question is whether the second-earner premium justifies center costs at all.
Watch Greene County's 53 licensed establishments. A small operator base carrying a county-wide load means routinely full waitlists despite low headline prices — Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education licensing data is the local source.

Affordability — 56/100

A typical Springfield family pays $9,259 a year for one infant in a licensed Greene County center — about $770 a month, or 20.1% of the area's $45,984 median household income. The $9,259 figure is the lowest annual infant-center price in the entire Midwest 3 cohort and roughly $7,900 below the national center median. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.84 — meaning monthly center care actually costs less than monthly rent, the only city in this cohort where that holds. For a Springfield family with two children in licensed centers, the annual outlay is about $18,000, well within reach for a dual-earner household even at modest wage levels. The catch: family child care home prices for Greene County are not published in NDCP, which limits the visible alternatives in the data.

Supply — 22/100

Greene County offers an estimated 34 licensed slots for every 100 children under five with working parents — well below the national benchmark of 73 and consistent with Missouri's broader statewide supply gap. The county has 53 licensed establishments, or 3.1 per 1,000 children under five, below the national density of 4.2. The supply score of 22 is the binding constraint on Springfield's overall ranking: even where prices are low and the relative affordability burden is manageable, parents face routinely full waitlists, particularly in infant rooms. The Missouri statewide gap of 47% per Bipartisan Policy Center estimates is the second-largest in the Midwest cohort.

Workforce — 81/100

The median Springfield childcare worker earns $13.94 an hour, or $28,980 a year — the lowest absolute median in this cohort, but covering 67% of the local single-adult living wage of $20.84 an hour, slightly better than the Kansas City and St. Louis ratios. The relatively favorable workforce score reflects how the cohort percentile-rank methodology rewards wage-to-cost-of-living parity. In practical terms, Springfield centers compete for staff against retail and food-service employers across the region, where comparable hourly pay is widely available without the credentialing requirements early educators must meet.

Family strain — 22/100

Mothers' labor force participation for those with kids under six is 62.5% — below the national rate of 68% and well below most Midwestern peer cities. Combined with a single-parent share of 42.8% — about 11 points above the national average — the strain dimension paints a picture of a city where the childcare market is partly self-limiting: lower LFP among mothers reduces the demand pressure that would otherwise push prices and supply gaps wider, but it also reflects an economy where many households have calculated that the second-earner premium is too small to justify center costs. The 22 score is the lowest among Missouri's four indexed cities.

Policy support — 40/100

Missouri enrolls about 10% of four-year-olds in state-funded pre-K and meets 4.3 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks. The state's CCDF subsidy reaches 25.2% of eligible children. Missouri offers no state paid family or medical leave, leaving Springfield families dependent on whatever employer benefits exist and on unpaid FMLA. Missouri also has partial gaps in NDCP price coverage, making national price benchmarks for the state somewhat less precise than for fully covered states. Policy is measured at the state level.

In-home care in Springfield

In-home care in Springfield reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns broadly in line with smaller Midwestern markets, where center care is comparatively affordable and the in-home caregiver pool is thinner than in major metros. Most families who pursue in-home care here are dual-professional households or those with three or more young children, where the math against multiple center tuitions begins to favor a single nanny. Au pair placements are uncommon in markets this size. Informal kin care — grandparents, aunts, family friends — remains a dominant feature of the local landscape.

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.