As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Memphis ranks the 29th largest city in the nation.

Tennessee assigns Memphis the same $14,029 infant tuition price it assigns Nashville. Memphis median household income, $51,211, runs 32% lower. The same care now consumes 27.4% of pre-tax pay — five and a half points above the national pain line and the worst affordability burden in this report cluster. Sixty-one percent of Memphis households with children are headed by a single parent, almost twice the national share, the highest reading in this report. The city's Tennessee ranking is fourth of five; nationally, 228th of 250. Where Nashville absorbs the state's flat-price trap because the music economy raised local wages, Memphis carries the same absolute cost on a household-income base that wasn't built to accommodate it.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 37 (Strained), ranked 228 of 250; fourth of Tennessee's five cities — sharpest cost-vs-income mismatch in this cluster.
Infant care $14,029/year — Tennessee's flat statewide price — is 27.4% of $51,211 median income, the worst burden in the cluster.
Single parents head 60.8% of households with children — almost twice the 31.8% national share, the highest reading in this report.

Actionable takeaways

Single-parent share is the strain driver, not price. At 60.8%, almost twice the national average, Memphis is carrying Tennessee's flat tuition on a one-income majority — a different problem than Nashville's, even with the same dollar bill.
Workforce score 72 is misleadingly strong. $13.58/hour reaches 64.3% of a Shelby County living wage only because Memphis's cost-of-living base is so low; nominal pay is still last-decile, and turnover competes against the same Nashville-area logistics economy.
The flat-pricing trap punishes Memphis hardest. A 32% lower median income against the identical $14,029 Nashville tuition produces a 27.4% burden — five points above the national pain line and the worst in this report cluster.

Affordability — 27/100

The Memphis affordability story is a price-income mismatch. Center infant care in Shelby County costs about $14,029 a year, identical to the Nashville figure because Tennessee's NDCP pricing runs flat across the major metros. But Memphis's $51,211 median household income is 32% lower than Nashville's, so the same $1,169-a-month slot claims 27.4% of pre-tax earnings — five and a half points above the national 21.9% norm and the worst affordability burden in this cluster. Median rent is $1,123, and childcare costs run 104% of monthly rent. A typical Memphis family with one infant in center care spends roughly $4,500 more per year, as a share of household income, than a national-median family on the same care.

Supply — 49/100

Shelby County reports about 37,742 licensed slots against 79,018 kids under five with working parents — 47.8 slots per 100, the same Tennessee proportional allocation as Nashville. Memphis is not in childcare-desert territory by the strict definition. The county has 220 licensed establishments at 3.48 providers per 1,000 kids under five, a healthier provider density than Nashville's 2.41, partly reflecting a larger population of small home-based programs serving the city's neighborhoods. The 48.8 dimension score is the highest of the five Memphis dimensions, suggesting that supply is the part of the local childcare equation most working but the cost burden remains the binding constraint.

Workforce — 72/100

The median Memphis-area childcare worker earns $13.58 an hour, or $28,240 a year, against a Shelby County single-adult living wage of $21.11 — 64.3% of self-sufficiency, the strongest workforce reading in this report cluster. With 2,700 workers in the local industry, the wage figure looks comparable to other Tennessee metros in nominal terms but does more work in Memphis because the cost-of-living base is meaningfully lower. The 71.5 dimension score reflects that arithmetic: provider pay still falls short of self-sufficiency, but the gap is smaller here than almost anywhere else in the index.

Family strain — 15.0/100

This is the lowest dimension score in this report cluster. Single parents head 60.8% of Memphis households with children — almost twice the national 31.8% share and well above the Tennessee state norm of 33.6%. Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six runs 64.6%, below the national 68.2% but consistent with the state average. The combined picture is a city where the majority of households with kids are headed by a single adult earning below the state median, which is the demographic reality the Family Strain dimension is designed to capture.

Policy support — 23.6/100

Tennessee's policy environment delivers high quality at low access: 20% of four-year-olds enrolled in state pre-K at $4,902 per child, meeting 9 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks; 1% of three-year-olds served. There is no state paid family or medical leave. CCDF subsidies reach 15.7% of eligible children. Memphis families inherit the same pre-K access as Nashville, Knoxville, and the rest of the state; policy is measured at the state level, not the city.

In-home care in Memphis

In-home care in Memphis typically reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates running below the Tennessee average given the lower cost-of-living and household-income base. Demand for in-home care here is shaped by the city's high single-parent share — schedule-flexible arrangements often matter more than the dual-earner premium services seen in Nashville. Nanny shares between two families remain less common than in higher-income metros, and au pair placements through J-1 sponsor agencies are a small share of the local 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). 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.