As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Nashville ranks the 21st largest city in the nation.

Tennessee uses a single statewide infant tuition figure of $14,029 a year, and that flat price is what every Tennessee metro Beverly tracks pays its center providers. The number breaks differently in each city, depending on the income on the other side. Nashville's $75,197 median household income makes the burden 18.7% — below the national 21.9% pain line. The same $14,029 in Memphis or Knoxville claims 27%. The country-music economy and the Class A-office boom along the Cumberland have pushed Davidson's wage base above what the state's flat childcare price assumes. Metro Nashville-Davidson is a consolidated city-county; the report covers the entire local-government footprint. Nashville ranks first of five in Tennessee, essentially at the national median: 125th of 250.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 50 (Moderate), ranked 125 of 250; first of Tennessee's five cities and essentially at the national median.
Infant care $14,029/year — Tennessee's flat statewide price — is 18.7% of $75,197 median income, against 27% in Memphis and Knoxville.
Davidson is a consolidated city-county; every metric covers the entire Metro Nashville-Davidson footprint, not a separate suburban universe.

Actionable takeaways

Tennessee's flat-pricing trap is the unique TN dynamic. The state's $14,029 statewide infant figure is 18.7% of income in Nashville and 27% in Memphis or Knoxville — one price, three different family realities, no in-state policy lever to recalibrate.
The provider count is alarmingly thin. 112 licensed establishments serving the entire consolidated city-county is the lowest density in this report cluster (2.41 per 1,000 kids); slot-per-100 looks adequate only because the centers that exist run large.
Watch the music-economy wage drift. Nashville's $14.89/hour childcare wage is the cluster's best, but cost-of-living has risen faster — the gap is widening, not closing.

Affordability — 75/100

Center infant care in Davidson County costs about $14,029 a year, or $1,169 a month — close to the national average in absolute dollars. Nashville's $75,197 median household income makes that 18.7% of pre-tax earnings, below the national 21.9% norm and roughly even with the Tennessee state average of 19.0%. Median rent is $1,486, the highest in this report cluster after Charleston, but childcare costs only 79% of monthly rent — the favorable ratio comes from a music-economy household income base that has held up against Nashville's population surge. A typical Nashville family with one infant in center care spends about $2,500 less per year than the national median family on the same slot.

Supply — 38/100

Davidson County reports about 27,247 licensed slots against 57,044 kids under five with working parents — 47.8 slots per 100, well above the childcare-desert threshold but well below adequate. The county has 112 licensed establishments at 2.41 providers per 1,000 kids under five, the lowest provider density in this report cluster. Tennessee's statewide gap on the BPC's potential-need methodology runs 21.6%, and Nashville's slot-per-100 figure suggests Davidson is doing better than the state average but is still leaving roughly half of potential demand unmet. The thinness of the provider count — fewer than 115 licensed centers and homes for the entire consolidated city-county — is the binding supply constraint.

Workforce — 46/100

The median Nashville-area childcare worker earns $14.89 an hour, or $30,980 a year — the highest workforce wage in this report cluster — against a Davidson County single-adult living wage of $24.56. That works out to 60.6% of self-sufficiency, only modestly better than the state average of 64.6% and notably worse than the city's wage rank suggests, because Nashville's cost-of-living base has risen faster than provider pay. With 5,090 workers in the local industry, the wage floor matters: Nashville centers compete against the same hospitality, retail, and warehouse jobs that have absorbed metro growth at $17 to $20 an hour.

Family strain — 50.4/100

Mothers' labor force participation for kids under six is 69.7% in Nashville, slightly above the national 68.2% and meaningfully above the Tennessee state average of 64.7%. Single parents head 38% of households with children, well above the national 31.8% share and above Tennessee's own 33.6%. The combined picture is a high-employment urban family base carrying a heavier single-parent burden than the broader state — consistent with Nashville's role as a regional employment magnet.

Policy support — 23.6/100

Tennessee's pre-K program enrolls just 20% of four-year-olds at $4,902 per child and meets 9 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks — high quality, low access. Three-year-olds are served at 1%. The state offers no paid family or medical leave. CCDF subsidies reach 15.7% of eligible children, broadly in line with the national average. Nashville families inherit one of the weaker pre-K access environments in the South; policy is measured at the state level.

In-home care in Nashville

In-home care in Nashville reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates running modestly above the Tennessee average given the higher cost-of-living base. Demand has tracked Nashville's professional and music-industry growth, and nanny shares between two families have become a recognizable workaround in the dual-earner segment. Au pair placements through the established J-1 sponsor agencies have grown in the metro since 2024, though the post-2025 federal program changes have shifted the cost calculus and pushed some new placements into nanny-share alternatives instead.

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.