As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Ohio has 6 cities among the largest 250 in the nation.
Ohio licenses enough childcare slots in aggregate to cover 87% of the children with potential need — a 12.7% gap, less than half the national rate and one of the tightest in the country. The state's problem is not capacity. It is that 35.5% of Ohio households with kids under 18 are led by a single parent, the highest such share in the Midwest, and infant care still consumes 20.8% of a $69,680 median household income that is among the region's lowest. State pre-K reaches just 15% of 4-year-olds; subsidies, 26%; there is no paid leave. Ohio finishes 41st nationally — a state where the supply problem has been solved on paper but where price and family structure do the damage that capacity expansion alone cannot fix.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Strained (43/100), ranked 41st nationally — third-lowest of the larger Midwestern states.
- Single-parent households make up 35.5% of families with kids under 18, the highest share in the Midwest; infant care eats 20.8% of a low-tier median income.
- Slot gap of 12.7% is among the tightest nationally — the bottleneck is price and family structure, not capacity.
Affordability — 32/100
A center-based infant slot in Ohio runs $14,469 a year — about $2,700 below the $17,163 national figure but consuming 20.8% of the state's $69,680 median household income, just under the 21.9% national share. The childcare-to-rent ratio sits at 1.22, above the 1.06 national figure because Ohio's rent base ($988/month) is among the lowest in the country. Toddler care runs $12,802; preschool, $11,348. Family child care offers some relief at $10,361 for infants. Ohio's affordability score lands deep in Strained territory because the state's household-income base is among the lowest in the Midwest — the absolute price tag would be more manageable in a higher-income state, but on Ohio paychecks it lands hard. The state's three big metros (Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati) carry different cost profiles, but the population-weighted average puts Ohio meaningfully behind the affordability frontier.
Supply — 45/100
Ohio is the supply outlier in the Midwest's Strained tier. The state licensed 491,590 childcare slots against 541,960 children with potential need — a 12.7% gap, less than half the 27% national rate and one of the tightest in the country. Of the 838,530 kids under five with all parents working, the licensed system can serve more than 90% at full enrollment. The state operates 2,883 licensed establishments at 4.27 per 1,000 children under five, slightly above the 4.21 national rate. The 45/100 Supply score reflects that the slot gap is narrow but the establishment density is only average — the state has roughly enough slots in aggregate, but they're not evenly distributed across the 88 counties. Cleveland and Cincinnati metros carry tighter supply pressure than the headline gap suggests. Even so, Ohio's supply story is meaningfully better than its overall ranking implies.
Workforce — 60/100
The median Ohio childcare worker earns $13.57 an hour — about $1.84 below the $15.41 national median and 64.6% of the state's $21.00 living wage for a single adult. That share lines up with the 62.6% national figure. Annual median pay sits at $28,230 across 12,580 workers in the occupation. The Workforce dimension lands just above the national midpoint and reflects Ohio's lower local cost of living: the wage doesn't go far in absolute terms but stretches further in Ohio than the same wage would in a higher-cost state. Wage levels are not what's holding Ohio's overall ranking down.
Family Strain — 37/100
Ohio's weakest dimension and the one that most clearly distinguishes the state from peer Midwestern markets. Single-parent households make up 35.5% of families with kids under 18 — nearly four points above the 31.8% national figure and the highest single-parent share in the Midwest. Mothers of children under six participate in the labor force at 69.9%, just above the 68.2% national rate. The dimension lands in deep Strained territory because the single-parent share carries disproportionate childcare risk — single-earner households absorb the full infant-care bill without a second income to share it. The pattern shows up most acutely in the Cleveland and Dayton metros, where the single-parent share exceeds the state average. Family Strain is the second-largest drag on Ohio's overall ranking after price.
Policy Support — 48/100
Ohio enrolls just 15% of 4-year-olds in state pre-K and 6% of 3-year-olds — modest enrollment with $4,250 per-child spending and 5 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks met. CCDF subsidies reach 26.4% of eligible children (about 50,500 monthly), close to the national midpoint and the strongest leg of the state's policy stool. Ohio has no paid family leave program. Head Start serves another 32,304 children — one of the larger Head Start enrollments in the country in absolute terms. Policy Support sits just below the national midpoint and reflects a state that has chosen subsidies and Head Start over universal pre-K. Given the state's high single-parent share, the subsidy reach is doing important work that doesn't show up in the headline pre-K access rate.
City spotlight
Columbus scores 51/100 (Moderate, #123 of 250) — the highest score of any Ohio city in the index and the only Ohio city to clear the Moderate-tier threshold. Franklin County's professional-services economy supports both higher household incomes and a more developed supply base than the rest of the state. Cleveland scores 45/100 (Strained, #166 of 250) and Cincinnati scores 46/100 (Strained, #159 of 250) — the two large legacy metros track the state-average profile closely. Dayton scores 43/100 (Strained, #190 of 250) — the lowest-ranked of the six Ohio cities in the index, where the combination of low Montgomery County household income and a high single-parent share produces the most acute pressure of any Ohio city. The 8-point spread across all six Ohio cities is one of the tighter intrastate ranges in the Midwest.
In-home care in Ohio
Beverly Research perspective: Ohio's in-home care market is concentrated in the Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati metros, with Columbus carrying the largest share of formal placements thanks to its growing professional-class household base. Full-time live-out nanny rates in the Columbus metro typically run $18-26/hour for one child; Cleveland and Cincinnati track similarly. The state's high single-parent share means a meaningful share of the in-home market addresses split-custody scheduling and after-school coverage rather than full-time nanny placements. Nanny shares are an emerging workaround in the inner suburbs of all three big metros for families navigating waitlist friction at higher-end centers. Au pair placements appear in pockets near the academic-medical centers and corporate headquarters but remain a small share of the overall market.
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). State-level prices and supply use population-weighted county aggregates. 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).