As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Oklahoma City ranks the 20th largest city in the nation.

Oklahoma enrolls 66% of its four-year-olds in state pre-K — three times North Carolina's reach, twice the national norm, and unmatched in any other state with comparable per-pupil spending. Oklahoma City inherits that infrastructure: a four-year-old of any income can sit in a state-funded classroom. The under-three years tell a different story. Center infant care in Oklahoma County runs $12,501 a year, eating 18.7% of a $66,702 median household income, and the workers staffing those rooms earn $11.41 an hour — 53.7% of a single-adult living wage, one of the lowest workforce readings in the index. The state's celebrated pre-K floor sits on top of an under-three system that no policy has reached. The capital still tops Oklahoma's three-city ranking at 44/100.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 44 (Strained), ranked 178 of 250 — tops Oklahoma's three cities; lifted by 66% pre-K enrollment, three times North Carolina's reach.
Childcare workers earn $11.41/hour — 53.7% of a single-adult living wage, one of the lowest workforce readings in the index.
Infant care $12,501/year, 18.7% of $66,702 median income; supply at 38.6 slots per 100 working-parent kids.

Actionable takeaways

Universal pre-K solves the four-year-old problem and nothing else. OKC's 66% pre-K enrollment is a national bright spot, but it sits on top of an under-three system where workers earn $11.41/hour — 53.7% of a single-adult living wage and one of the lowest workforce readings in the index.
The hybrid OKC family model is policy-driven. State pre-K for the four-year-old + part-time in-home care for the infant is the locally rational arrangement; under-three subsidy expansion would change family math far more than additional pre-K dollars.
Workforce 4/100 is the structural fragility. A 3,690-person provider workforce paid below cost of living is one wage shock away from a slot collapse; turnover dynamics matter more here than supply density does.

Affordability — 62/100

A center infant slot in Oklahoma County runs $12,501 a year, or about $1,042 a month. Set against the city's $66,702 median household income, that's 18.7% of pre-tax earnings — below the national 21.9% burden line and roughly even with the Oklahoma state average of 17.8%. Median rent is $1,083, so childcare and rent track within $20 of each other on a monthly basis. A typical Oklahoma City family with one infant in center care spends about $4,600 less per year than the national median family does on the same slot, mostly because the floor of metro housing prices keeps overall costs down — but the savings disappear quickly for families with two children under five.

Supply — 44/100

Oklahoma County reports about 27,141 licensed slots against 70,323 kids under five with working parents, or 38.6 slots per 100 — above the childcare-desert threshold but well below adequate. The county has 253 licensed providers, 4.6 per 1,000 kids under five, broadly in line with national density. The slot-to-need gap is the binding constraint; Oklahoma's statewide capacity sits at about 119,000 slots against an estimated 308,000 kids needing care, a gap the Bipartisan Policy Center pegs at 34.2%. Oklahoma City carries roughly 23% of the state's slot inventory, and infant rooms — as elsewhere — are the first to fill.

Workforce — 4/100

The headline workforce number for Oklahoma City childcare workers is $11.41 an hour, or $23,740 a year for full-time work. The single-adult living wage in Oklahoma County is $21.24 an hour; the typical childcare worker earns 53.7% of what they would need to cover their own basic costs. The Workforce Health dimension score of 4.2 is among the lowest in the index. The 3,690-person workforce that absorbs every working family's youngest children is, by the math, structurally underpaid relative to local cost of living, and the turnover patterns documented in CCAoA's annual workforce reports for Oklahoma reflect that gap.

Family strain — 44.4/100

Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six is 67% in Oklahoma City, almost identical to the state (63.5%) and just below the national average (68.2%). Where the city diverges is on single parenthood: 36.5% of households with children are headed by a single parent, well above the 31.8% national share. That household composition multiplies childcare strain — single earners hit affordability walls earlier and have fewer fallback options when a center closes its infant room or a worker quits mid-week.

Policy support — 48.0/100

Oklahoma is the national outlier on universal pre-K. The state enrolls 66% of four-year-olds at $5,133 per child and meets 9 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks — an enrollment rate three times North Carolina's and twice the national norm. Three-year-olds are served at 6%. Oklahoma offers no state paid family or medical leave. CCDF subsidies reach 15.8% of eligible children, modestly above the national average. Oklahoma City families inherit the strongest pre-K policy environment in the South even as the workforce supporting the under-three years remains the weakest in the state's score profile.

In-home care in Oklahoma City

In-home care in Oklahoma City reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates in line with the broader Oklahoma City market. Given the strong policy environment for four-year-olds, families often piece together a hybrid arrangement: state pre-K for the older child plus part-time in-home care or a nanny share covering the infant. Au pair placements remain less common here than in coastal metros, but the program's lower all-in cost relative to two full-time center slots has pulled in a small number of OKC families since 2024.

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.