As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Columbus ranks the 14th largest city in the nation.

Franklin County runs 6.3 licensed childcare establishments per thousand kids under five, well above Ohio's 4.3 and the 4.2 national rate, and offers about 59 licensed slots for every 100 working-parent kids — capacity that pulls Columbus to a Supply score of 90.5/100 and the only spot in the Ohio top tier. The catch is the same pattern that defines the state: $16,093 a year for one infant in a center, against a $65,327 median household income, comes to 24.6% of pre-tax pay — three points worse than the national share, and four points worse than Ohio overall. Forty-six percent of families with children are single-parent. The 51/100 composite ranks Columbus 123rd nationally and first among Ohio's six measured cities — the only one in the state to clear the Moderate bar.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 51/100, Moderate, ranked 123 of 250 — first of Ohio's six measured cities, the only one in the state to clear Moderate.
Supply score 90.5/100; roughly 59 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids under five, density 6.3 establishments per thousand.
Infant center care consumes 24.6% of household income — three points worse than the national share, four worse than Ohio overall.

Actionable takeaways

Columbus is the only Ohio city to clear the Moderate tier — and Franklin County density is the reason. 6.3 establishments per 1,000 kids vs. 4.3 statewide and 4.2 national. The state policy backdrop (15% pre-K access, no paid leave) is identical to Cleveland's; the supply isn't.
The local angle is that Columbus household income runs $4,400 below Ohio overall. Even with Franklin County earnings climbing through the Intel announcement and JPMorgan tech expansion, the city's median lags the state average — that gap is what pushes the affordability burden three points worse than the US figure.
Watch the Intel-driven price effect over the next three years. Licking County construction is the leading indicator; if Franklin's center-care rates climb to track the regional cost-of-living shift, the affordability score is the first to move.

Affordability — 29/100

A year of infant care in a Franklin County center runs about $16,093 in 2025 — $1,070 less than the $17,163 national figure, but still 24.6% of Columbus's $65,327 median household income. The state line tells a softer story: across Ohio, the same care averages $14,469 and consumes 20.8% of the typical household budget. Columbus families pay more in absolute dollars and a meaningfully larger share of paychecks than their statewide peers because median earnings inside the city sit roughly $4,400 below Ohio overall. Childcare also outruns rent here by about 10% — a $16,093 tuition line stacked against $14,688 in annual median rent. For a family with a single infant in full-time center care, that pencils out to roughly $1,340 a month, on top of housing — the kind of math that pushes second earners toward part-time work or family help.

Supply — 91/100

Columbus runs noticeably ahead of most cities on raw capacity. Franklin County logs an estimated 63,872 licensed slots against 108,950 kids under 5 with working parents — about 58.6 slots per 100 such kids. That's not abundance, but it clears the "childcare desert" threshold of one slot for every three kids, and 554 licensed establishments give the metro 6.3 providers per 1,000 children under 5, well above Ohio's 4.3 and the 4.2 national rate. The trade-off: the dense provider count is one reason Columbus posts Ohio's strongest score overall — capacity, even at infant-center prices, is real here.

Workforce — 48/100

The median Columbus childcare worker earns $13.62 an hour — about $28,330 a year — which equals 60.7% of the local single-adult living wage of $22.42. That gap is wider than Ohio's overall (where workers clear 64.6% of their living wage) and wider than the national figure of 62.6%. Roughly 2,950 workers staff the metro's centers and family homes, and at this wage band turnover is the durable problem: classrooms lose teachers to retail and warehouse jobs that pay $15-17 with fewer demands.

Family strain — 39.6/100

Mothers of kids under 6 work outside the home at a 70.4% rate in Columbus — almost identical to the Ohio rate (69.9%) and a bit higher than the national 68.2%. Single-parent share comes in at 46.1%, well above the 31.8% US figure. Read together, these numbers describe a city where most mothers of young children are in the labor force and nearly half of those families are managing childcare logistics on a single income — a load that the affordability and workforce numbers above amplify.

Policy support — 41.9/100

Ohio enrolls about 15% of 4-year-olds in state pre-K and 6% of 3-year-olds, with roughly $4,250 spent per enrolled child and 5 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks met. The state's CCDF subsidy reaches 26.4% of eligible families — close to the national average — and serves about 50,500 children a month. 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 on this dimension.

In-home care in Columbus

In-home care in Columbus tracks broader Midwest patterns, with full-time live-out nanny rates falling in line with the wider Ohio market and rising on a per-hour basis as households compete for experienced caregivers. Nanny shares between two families have become a more common workaround for parents priced out of infant center tuition but unwilling to wait out long waitlists. Au pair placements remain a smaller piece of the picture but are picking up in Dublin, Upper Arlington, and other neighborhoods where dual-physician and dual-tech households lean toward live-in 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).

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.