As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Raleigh ranks the 41st largest city in the nation.
A Raleigh family with two children — one infant in center care, one toddler — spends more than $33,000 a year on tuition. That is more than the entire pre-tax income of a median household in Jackson, Mississippi. The Triangle's biotech, university, and tech employers pay six-figure salaries; Wake County's infant rooms have 26.7 licensed slots for every 100 working-parent children, the same desert-grade ratio that defines most North Carolina metros. The workers staffing those rooms earn $13.60 an hour — fast-food wages in a metro where Duke and NC State set the labor benchmark. Wealthy childcare desert is the operative phrase. Raleigh ranks last of nine North Carolina cities in Beverly's index and 233rd of 250 nationally.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Score 36 (Strained), ranked 233 of 250 — last of NC's nine cities despite an $82,424 median income.
- Wake County is a childcare desert at 26.7 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids; infant center care $18,155/year, 22% of median income.
- Childcare workers earn $13.60/hour, 52.7% of the local living wage — fast-food pay in a Duke/NC State labor market.
Actionable takeaways
- Two-kid Raleigh families now spend more than Jackson's median household earns. $33,000 a year for an infant + a toddler in Wake County center care — gross, before tax — exceeds the $43,238 pre-tax median income of an entire household in Jackson, MS.
- Wealthy childcare desert, Triangle edition. Raleigh ranks last of NC's nine cities despite the state's highest tech-and-research employment density; the Triangle has built jobs faster than it has built classrooms.
- The wage floor will not lift on its own. A $13.60/hour median in a metro where Duke and NC State set the labor benchmark is structural; without state subsidy or a wage supplement, infant-room turnover stays the binding constraint.
Affordability — 43/100
A year of infant center care in Wake County costs about $18,155 — above the national median of $17,163 and roughly $1,400 above the typical North Carolina county. For a Raleigh household earning the median $82,424, that's 22.0% of pre-tax income — more than triple the federal 7%-affordable benchmark. The childcare-to-rent ratio sits at 1.03, meaning infant tuition runs roughly a month of rent ($1,468). For a Raleigh family with two children — one infant in center care, one in toddler care — the combined annual childcare bill exceeds $33,000 before kindergarten, more than the median pre-tax income of a Jackson, Mississippi, household. Affordability is one of the headline strains here despite the metro's relative wealth.
Supply — 40/100
Raleigh sits in a childcare desert. Wake County reports roughly 22,235 licensed slots against about 83,356 kids under 5 with working parents — 26.7 slots per 100, below the 30-per-100 desert line and far short of the 73-per-100 national figure. The county counts 334 licensed establishments serving 26,745 city children under 5 — 5.0 establishments per 1,000, slightly above the national 4.2. The pattern is familiar across North Carolina's growth metros: capacity has not kept up with population growth. Statewide, North Carolina reports a 55.9% childcare gap, among the largest in the nation. Raleigh's families search hardest for infant slots, where waitlists routinely run 6-12 months.
Workforce — 4/100
This is the floor that explains the rest of the score. Raleigh's median childcare worker earns $13.60 an hour — about $28,290 annually — or 52.7% of the local $25.80 living wage for a single adult. The 3.6/100 workforce health score places the city among the worst in the index for early educator pay relative to local cost of living. In a metro where Duke, NC State, and the RTP tech ecosystem set wage expectations, $13.60 an hour is the wage of a fast-food shift, not of someone holding ratio in an infant classroom. Turnover is the predictable outcome.
Family strain — 57/100
About 69.8% of Raleigh mothers with children under 6 are in the labor force — slightly above the 68.2% national rate and well above North Carolina's 67.5%, consistent with the Triangle's two-earner professional workforce. Single-parent households make up 34.6% of families with children, modestly above the 31.8% national share. Raleigh's $82,424 median household income provides a buffer that families in lower-income metros lack, which is why family strain comes in as the city's strongest dimension despite weak supply and affordability scores. The strain still exists — it simply gets paid for from larger paychecks.
Policy support — 24/100
North Carolina enrolls 22% of 4-year-olds in state pre-K and spends $7,117 per enrolled child, meeting 9 of 10 NIEER quality benchmarks — high program quality, narrow program reach. CCDF subsidy reach is 13.4%. The state has no paid family leave program, leaving Raleigh parents on the unpaid federal FMLA floor unless their employer fills the gap. Policy is measured at the state level; in Raleigh, the gap between Triangle tech-employer parental leave (often 12-20 weeks paid) and what the state mandates is wider than in most American metros.
In-home care in Raleigh
In-home care in Raleigh typically reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates in line with the broader Carolinas / Research Triangle market. Demand concentrates around Duke, NC State, RTI, and the Research Triangle Park's tech and pharma workforces — households that often need flexible coverage, multiples care, or schedules longer than a center day. Nanny shares are a recurring workaround for the metro's chronic infant-slot shortage, particularly between neighboring families with closely-aged children. Au pair placements through the State Department's J-1 program also fill the gap for households needing 45+ hours of weekly coverage.
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).