As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Cincinnati ranks the 64th largest city in the nation.

Hamilton County offers 88.7/100 on supply, with 312 licensed establishments and roughly six providers per thousand kids under five — density that clears the childcare desert threshold by a comfortable margin. The drag is affordability. Center care runs 41% above annual rent, and the $16,093 infant tuition lands against a $51,707 median household income to consume 31.1% of pre-tax pay, ten points above the national share. Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six is 67.4%; the single-parent share is 55.4%, suggesting a slight majority of families with children are run by a single parent. The 46/100 composite ranks Cincinnati 159th nationally and third among Ohio's six measured cities — the same dense-supply, hard-to-pay pattern that defines most of the state.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 46/100, Strained, ranked 159 of 250 — third of Ohio's six measured cities; affordability score 9.2.
Infant care in Hamilton County runs $16,093 a year — 31.1% of household income, ten points above the national share.
Supply score 88.7/100; 312 licensed establishments at 6.0 providers per 1,000 kids under five.

Actionable takeaways

The 55.4% single-parent share — slight majority of Cincinnati families with kids — is the structural fact driving the 31.1% affordability burden. Lower than Cleveland's 71% but still 24 points above national. Hamilton County's income map and provider map should be overlaid for the local follow-up.
Don't treat the cross-river Northern Kentucky metro as part of the same number. Hamilton County figures are Cincinnati-specific; Boone, Kenton, and Campbell counties have different prices and supply, and the metro story diverges meaningfully across the Ohio River.
Watch the Hamilton-vs-Butler-vs-Warren county pricing spread. Cincinnati's $16,093 sits inside one county's NDCP envelope; the neighboring suburban counties likely run higher. Greater Cincinnati Foundation's early-childhood data is the local angle.

Affordability — 9/100

A year of infant center care in Hamilton County runs $16,093 in 2025 — about $1,070 below the national average — but Cincinnati's $51,707 median household income makes that bill 31.1% of a typical paycheck. Across Ohio, the same care averages $14,469 and consumes 20.8% of the typical budget; nationally, 21.9%. Childcare also outruns rent here by 41% — $16,093 in tuition against roughly $11,440 in annual median rent. For a Cincinnati family with one infant in full-time care, that shakes out to about $1,341 a month in tuition, on top of housing — a line item that pushes most households toward family care, part-time arrangements, or the family-childcare-home market, where infant care averages $10,751 a year.

Supply — 89/100

Hamilton County logs an estimated 38,235 licensed slots against 65,220 kids under 5 with working parents — about 58.6 slots per 100 kids. With 312 licensed establishments and 6.0 providers per 1,000 children under 5, the metro sits well above Ohio's statewide supply baseline (45.1) and the national density figure (4.2 establishments per 1,000). Cincinnati clears the "childcare desert" threshold by a comfortable margin, a function of dense urban provider networks in Hamilton County's older neighborhoods and steady demand from the metro's healthcare and university employer base.

Workforce — 76/100

The median Cincinnati childcare worker earns $13.91 an hour — about $28,940 a year — equal to 65.4% of the local single-adult living wage of $21.28. That ratio sits slightly above Ohio's statewide figure (64.6%) and the national rate (62.6%), and is one of the better workforce scores in the Ohio cohort. Roughly 2,870 workers staff the metro's centers and family homes. As elsewhere, the durable problem at this wage band is retention — competing service-sector jobs in Hamilton County now pay $15-17 an hour with simpler workloads.

Family strain — 25.7/100

Mothers of kids under 6 work outside the home at a 67.4% rate in Cincinnati, just below the Ohio statewide figure (69.9%) and the national rate (68.2%). The single-parent share comes in at 55.4%, well above the 31.8% US figure. Together, those numbers describe a city where a slight majority of families with children are managed by a single parent, and most mothers of young children are in the workforce — pulling against the affordability picture above.

Policy support — 41.9/100

Ohio enrolls about 15% of 4-year-olds in state pre-K and 6% of 3-year-olds, spending roughly $4,250 per enrolled child and meeting 5 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks. The state's CCDF subsidy reaches 26.4% of eligible families and serves about 50,500 children a month — close to the national average. Ohio offers no statewide paid family or medical leave program. Policy is measured at the state level; every Ohio city in the index inherits the same 41.9 score.

In-home care in Cincinnati

In-home care in Cincinnati follows broader Midwest patterns, with full-time live-out nanny rates falling in line with the wider Ohio market and trending higher in Hyde Park, Indian Hill, and the eastern Hamilton County suburbs where dual-income professional households concentrate. Nanny shares between two families have become a common workaround for parents priced out of single-family rates but unwilling to take on infant center tuition. Au pair placements remain a smaller share of the metro's in-home market but are growing among households that prefer live-in scheduling flexibility.

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.