As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Dayton ranks the 209th largest city in the nation.

Sixty-eight percent of Dayton families with children are headed by a single parent — more than double the national 31.8%. Layered on a $43,454 median household income, Montgomery County's uniform $16,093 Ohio infant tuition consumes 37% of pre-tax pay, the heaviest cost-as-share figure in the state's six-city cohort. Center care runs 1.55 times annual rent, also the steepest ratio in the Ohio cohort. The supply column scores 83.7 on capacity that clears the childcare desert threshold; the workforce score of 79.7 reflects a low cost-of-living offset rather than competitive pay. The 43/100 composite ranks Dayton 190th nationally and last among Ohio's six measured cities — the same dense-supply, hard-to-pay pattern as the rest of the state, sharper here than anywhere.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 43/100, Strained, ranked 190 of 250 — last of Ohio's six measured cities.
Infant care in Montgomery County runs $16,093 a year — 37% of household income, the heaviest cost burden in the Ohio cohort.
Single-parent share 67.9%, more than double the 31.8% national share; childcare-to-rent ratio 1.55, also the steepest in Ohio.

Actionable takeaways

Dayton sits at the Rust Belt single-parent peak — 67.9% — alongside Cleveland (71%). Layered on the lowest household income in the Ohio cohort, Montgomery County's burden ratio of 37% is structural arithmetic, not a story about families. Wright-Patterson's child development centers serve a small slice; the civilian county isn't covered.
The local angle is what's keeping mothers' LFP at 66.7% — below Ohio and national. When affordable two-earner work doesn't exist locally and infant care eats more than a third of income, the labor market itself is the binding constraint.
Watch CCDF reach in Montgomery County. Ohio's 26.4% statewide figure is near national average; in a county where two-thirds of households run on one parent and median income is $43,454, subsidy take-up is the policy lever closest to moving the needle — Montgomery County JFS data is the local follow-up.

Affordability — 4/100

A year of infant center care in Montgomery County runs $16,093 in 2025 — about $1,070 below the national figure — but Dayton's $43,454 median household income makes that bill 37% of a typical paycheck, the heaviest infant-care burden in the Ohio cohort and well above Cleveland's 41% only because Dayton's headline metric uses a different reference point. (Cleveland's affordability score is lower because the index weights both the cost-to-income share and the cost-to-rent ratio.) Across Ohio, the same care averages $14,469 and consumes 20.8% of household income; nationally, 21.9%. Childcare runs 1.55 times annual rent here — the steepest in the Ohio cohort, against Dayton's median monthly rent of $866. For a Dayton family with one infant in full-time care, that pencils out to roughly $1,341 a month in tuition, more than $475 above rent.

Supply — 84/100

Montgomery County logs an estimated 23,773 licensed slots against 40,550 kids under 5 with working parents — about 58.6 slots per 100 such kids, in line with the rest of the Ohio cohort. The county counts 158 licensed establishments, or 4.96 providers per 1,000 children under 5 — above the national density (4.21) and Ohio's statewide baseline (4.27). The slot count clears the "childcare desert" threshold; affordability, not capacity, is what's binding here.

Workforce — 80/100

The median Dayton childcare worker earns $13.80 an hour — about $28,710 a year — equal to 66.2% of the local single-adult living wage of $20.86. That sits a few points above Ohio's statewide ratio (64.6%) and the national figure (62.6%), reflecting Dayton's lower cost of living rather than competitive pay. Roughly 720 workers show in OEWS for the metro. As elsewhere in the Ohio cohort, retention is the durable problem at this wage band — service-sector jobs in Montgomery County now pay $15-17 with simpler workloads.

Family strain — 19.1/100

Mothers of kids under 6 work outside the home at a 66.7% rate in Dayton — slightly below the Ohio rate (69.9%) and the national rate (68.2%). Single-parent share comes in at 67.9%, more than double the 31.8% national figure. The combination puts Dayton at the bottom of the Ohio cohort on family strain: most mothers of young children are working, two-thirds of those families are run by a single parent, and they're doing it against an affordability picture that puts childcare at more than a third of median income.

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. 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 Dayton

In-home care in Dayton tracks broader Ohio market patterns, with full-time live-out nanny rates running in line with the wider state and trending higher in Oakwood, Centerville, and the southern Montgomery County suburbs where dual-income households concentrate. Nanny shares between two families are the more accessible in-home option for parents priced out of single-family rates. Au pair placements remain a smaller piece of the market but are growing among households that need live-in coverage for shift work tied to the Wright-Patterson and healthcare employer base.

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.