As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, High Point ranks the 240th largest city in the nation.
High Point's furniture economy once defined the city's wage floor, and in 2026 a downsized version of that economy still does. The median household earns $61,228 and pays $1,062 a month in rent. An infant center slot costs $1,086 a month — daycare has overtaken rent. Guilford County offers 27 licensed slots for every 100 working-parent kids, desert-grade, and the people staffing those slots earn $13.54 an hour, 62% of a single-adult living wage. Center directors describe staff cycling out monthly for $16-an-hour retail jobs that don't require a CPR certification. North Carolina's pre-K program meets nine of NIEER's ten quality benchmarks but reaches just 22% of four-year-olds. High Point ranks 176th of 250.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Score 44 (Strained), ranked 176 of 250; infant tuition has overtaken rent — $1,086/month against $1,062 median rent.
- Guilford County is a childcare desert at 27 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids; NC's 56% supply gap is among the worst nationally.
- Childcare workers earn $13.54/hour, 62.1% of the local living wage; staff cycle out for $16/hour retail jobs without a CPR requirement.
Actionable takeaways
- Daycare has overtaken rent. $1,086/month infant tuition vs $1,062 median rent — High Point is one of the cleanest mid-sized examples nationally where the second household line item has flipped.
- The retail-wage ceiling is the binding constraint. Center directors lose staff to $16/hour retail jobs that drop the credentialing burden; a state-level wage supplement would do more for retention than any tuition policy.
- NC's structural supply gap is invariant across city size. High Point posts the same desert ratio as Charlotte and Raleigh — confirming the gap is set in Raleigh, not in any metro.
Affordability — 44/100
A center infant slot in Guilford County runs about $13,034 a year — roughly $1,086 a month. Set against High Point's $61,228 median household income, that's 21.3% of pre-tax earnings going to one child's care. Median rent here is $1,062, so a family with an infant is already paying more for daycare than for the apartment. The state-level average burden sits at 18.6%, and the national figure is 21.9%, which puts High Point right at the national pain line — a mid-sized furniture-economy city absorbing the same cost shock as Atlanta or Charlotte without the salary base. A typical High Point family with one infant in center care spends roughly $1,800 more per year than a family earning North Carolina's median income would on the same slot.
Supply — 42/100
High Point has roughly 9,678 licensed slots against 36,282 kids under five with working parents, or about 27 slots per 100 — well under the 33-per-100 line that defines a childcare desert. The county has 164 licensed providers, a respectable 5.4 establishments per 1,000 children under five, but that count includes small home-based programs that fill quickly and rarely take infants. North Carolina as a whole reports a 56% gap between potential need and licensed capacity, one of the worst in the South Atlantic, and Guilford reflects the state pattern: enough centers on paper, far fewer infant rooms in practice.
Workforce — 55/100
The median childcare worker in the High Point–Greensboro labor market earns $13.54 an hour, or about $28,160 a year for full-time work. EPI's family budget calculator pegs a single-adult living wage in Guilford County at $21.82 an hour — meaning the typical educator earns 62.1% of what it costs to support themselves alone, before any cost of dependents. With 840 workers in the local industry, retention is the chronic question: every program director interviewed in past CCAoA workforce surveys describes the same pattern of staff cycling out for $16-an-hour retail jobs that don't require a CPR certification.
Family strain — 59.2/100
Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six runs 69.7% in High Point, slightly above both the state (67.5%) and national (68.2%) averages. Combined with a $61K median income, that participation reads less as opportunity and more as necessity — two earners are required to clear the rent-plus-childcare math. Single parents head 32.9% of households with children, almost identical to the national share, which means roughly one in three High Point families is solving the cost-and-supply equation without a second adult in the home.
Policy support — 23.8/100
North Carolina's NC Pre-K program enrolls 22% of four-year-olds at $7,117 per child — above-median spending that meets 9 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks. Three-year-olds are not served. The state offers no paid family or medical leave. CCDF subsidies reach 13.4% of eligible children statewide, leaving most working-poor families paying out of pocket or making do with informal arrangements. Policy is measured at the state level; High Point families inherit North Carolina's policy environment unchanged.
In-home care in High Point
In-home care in High Point typically reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates falling in line with the broader Triad market. Nanny shares between two families have become a recognizable workaround for households earning near the metro median, splitting the per-hour cost roughly in half while preserving the small-group ratio. Au pair placements remain rare in mid-sized North Carolina cities relative to Charlotte or Raleigh, but the post-2025 federal program changes have pushed a small number of families to look at the option as center waitlists stretch past nine months.
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).