As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Murfreesboro ranks the 160th largest city in the nation.

Rutherford County is one of the fastest-growing counties in the Nashville MSA, and its 60 licensed childcare establishments have not poured concrete fast enough to match. Murfreesboro offers 47.8 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids — short of adequate, though not formally desert — against a steady inflow of Nashville-priced-out families and an expanding MTSU student-parent population. Local household income has ridden the commuter wave to $76,241, which makes Tennessee's flat $14,029 infant price the lightest burden share in the South non-Texas cluster at 18.4%. The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.85. Tennessee's policy ceiling — pre-K reaching one in five four-year-olds, no paid leave, CCDF reaching 15.7% of eligible families — applies. Murfreesboro ranks second of five in Tennessee, 140th of 250 nationally.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 49 (Strained), ranked 140 of 250; second of Tennessee's five cities, lifted by 73/100 Affordability against a $76,241 median income.
Tennessee's flat $14,029 infant price is 18.4% of household budget — the lightest burden share in the South non-Texas cluster.
Supply 40/100: 47.8 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids; growth has outpaced Rutherford County's 60 licensed establishments.

Actionable takeaways

Nashville's commuter overflow pulled income but not centers. Rutherford County's 2.71 establishments per 1,000 kids reads identical to consolidated Nashville-Davidson — the new arrivals brought paychecks, not provider growth.
MTSU's student-parent population is the underweighted demand source. Center waitlists in Murfreesboro stretch in ways the slot-per-100 figure doesn't capture; expect sharpest infant-room pressure each fall semester.
Best burden share in the South non-Texas cluster is fragile. 18.4% holds only because incomes outpaced the state's flat $14,029 floor; if Nashville rents stop pushing buyers south, the buffer compresses fast.

Affordability — 73/100

A Murfreesboro family with one infant in a center pays about $14,029 a year — roughly $1,170 a month, or 18.4% of the city's $76,241 median household income. That's the most affordable burden share in the South non-Texas cluster, and it reflects two things: Rutherford County's prices have moved more slowly than the explosive Nashville-MSA median for housing, and local incomes have ridden the Nashville commuter wave upward. The city's childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.85 — center care costs about 85 cents on the dollar versus monthly rent ($1,376), one of the friendlier ratios among Tennessee mid-size cities. Stack a typical Murfreesboro infant tuition against the national median ($17,163), and a local family pays roughly $3,100 less per child while earning close to the national household average. The relief is real, but it is real only against a national backdrop where infant care has become structurally unaffordable.

Supply — 40/100

Murfreesboro offers about 47.8 licensed slots for every 100 children under 5 with working parents — well short of the 73-per-100 national figure. The city is not formally a childcare desert, but Rutherford County's 60 licensed establishments serving 22,158 children under 5 (2.71 establishments per 1,000 kids) hasn't kept pace with what is one of the fastest-growing counties in the Nashville MSA. MTSU's expanding student-parent population and a steady inflow of Nashville-priced-out families pressure waitlists in ways the supply data doesn't fully capture. Statewide, the BPC estimates a 21.6% gap between supply and demand.

Workforce — 46/100

The median Murfreesboro childcare worker earns $14.89 an hour ($30,980 annually) — better than the Tennessee median ($13.96) but still only 60.6% of the local single-adult living wage of $24.56. Wages haven't kept pace with the cost-of-living drift that's followed Nashville's growth into Rutherford County. The 5,090 childcare workers in the metro labor pool are doing a job that pays roughly half what an entry-level technician earns in the same county. That gap is the structural reason classrooms close midday and waitlists get longer.

Family strain — 41/100

Mothers of children under 6 participate in the workforce at 59.26% — about nine points below the national rate of 68.21%. Single-parent households make up 29.7% of families with kids, slightly under the national share. With 59% of children under 6 already in homes where every parent works, demand pressure runs high — and a meaningful share of the city's mothers are out of paid work because the math of two paychecks minus childcare doesn't pencil.

Policy support — 23/100

Tennessee's Voluntary Pre-K program reaches 20% of 4-year-olds (and 1% of 3-year-olds) at $4,902 per child — among the lowest pre-K access rates in the South. The state has no paid family or medical leave program. CCDF child-care subsidies reach 15.7% of eligible families, serving about 22,100 children monthly statewide. Policy is measured at the state level.

In-home care in Murfreesboro

In-home care in Murfreesboro typically reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates in line with the broader Nashville-region market. Among the city's growing dual-professional commuter population, nanny shares between two families have become a meaningful affordability lever — splitting a single nanny's hourly rate roughly in half and securing schedule flexibility that most Rutherford County centers can't match. Au pair placements remain rare at this metro size but are climbing among Nashville-orbit households.

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.