As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Dallas ranks the 9th largest city in the nation.
Twenty miles separates Dallas's median household from Plano's, and the gap between them — $67,760 to roughly $109,000 — explains the sharpest intra-metro split in the entire 250-city index. Same Tarrant- and Dallas-County labor market, same infant tuition prices in the $13,000 range. Plano's families spend about 12% of pre-tax income on a year of infant care; Dallas families spend 19.3%. Plano ranks fifth in Texas and eighth nationally on Beverly's index. Dallas ranks 31st of 31 in Texas, 141st of 250 nationally — the lowest finish of any Texas city in the dataset, dragged down by mothers' labor force participation of 59.3% and a 39.8% single-parent share. Beverly's clients live in Highland Park, University Park, Preston Hollow. The score belongs to the rest of the city.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Score 48 (Strained), ranked 141 of 250; 31st of 31 in Texas — Dallas's lowest in-state finish despite hosting Beverly's affluent core.
- Plano (8th nationally) sits 20 miles north on the same labor market — sharpest intra-metro split in the 250-city index.
- Dallas County childcare workers earn $14.31/hour, 59.3% of a local living wage; mothers' labor force participation 59.3%, single-parent share 39.8%.
Actionable takeaways
- Dallas ranks lower than its own suburbs. Plano (8th nationally), Frisco, and McKinney all outscore Dallas proper; Highland Park, University Park, and Preston Hollow households use a parallel in-home care market that the city-level score does not capture.
- The 20-mile arbitrage is the story. Same Dallas-Fort Worth labor pool, same ~$13K infant tuition, but Plano households pay 12% of income while Dallas households pay 19% — sharpest intra-metro split in the 250-city index.
- Workforce churn lands on the youngest classrooms. A $14.31/hour wage against a $24.14 living wage drives turnover into DFW logistics warehouses; watch infant-room teacher tenure as the leading indicator of system strain.
Affordability — 66/100
A year of full-time infant center care in Dallas runs $13,045 — about $4,100 below the national average but enough to consume 19.3% of the city's $67,760 median household income. Toddler tuition is $11,836; preschool, $10,838. Family child care homes price slightly lower at $11,203 for infants.
Dallas County prices sit roughly 9% above the Texas state average, mirroring the metro premium seen in Houston. Childcare-to-rent runs 0.77 — meaning rent is still the larger line item in a typical Dallas family budget, but only by about a quarter. A typical Dallas family with one infant in center care spends about $5,800 more per year than a Texas family at the state median for the same care band.
The affordability story flips dramatically just 20 miles north: Plano households with median incomes near $109,000 pay roughly the same dollar tuition while the share of income drops to 12.1%. Same metro, different math.
Supply — 53/100
Dallas County has roughly 125,500 licensed slots against 226,000 children under 5 with working parents — the same 56-per-100 ratio that characterizes most of urban Texas. Dallas is not a designated childcare desert by federal definition, but the gap between licensed capacity and working-parent demand is real and pervasive. The county has 496 licensed establishments, or 2.75 per 1,000 children under 5 — below the national rate of 4.21 and below the Texas state rate of 3.17.
Texas's state-level Supply score of 17.6/100 — among the worst in the country — reflects a system where licensed capacity has not kept pace with the population growth that brought millions to North Texas over the past decade. Dallas is a microcosm of that strain.
Workforce — 33/100
The median Dallas County childcare worker earns $14.31/hour — about $29,760 a year — or 59.3% of the local living wage of $24.14/hour. Workforce Health is the dimension dragging Dallas to the bottom of the Texas score. The wage simply cannot support an independent adult life in the city, and the consequence is the steady churn of trained early educators out of the field and into retail, warehouse, and gig work that pays $4-7 more an hour without the credentialing burden.
Center directors describe a constant talent leak: hire, train, certify, lose to a logistics warehouse near DFW Airport. The classroom turnover lands on parents as mid-year teacher swaps and on the youngest children as broken attachment cycles in exactly the developmental window when consistent caregiving matters most.
Family strain — 22/100
Mothers' labor force participation among kids under 6 sits at 59.3% in Dallas — well below the 68.2% national rate. Single-parent households make up 39.8% of families with kids — eight points above the national average. The pattern echoes Houston: enough households face cost-or-supply barriers severe enough to keep a parent home rather than spend most of a second income on childcare.
Policy support — 48/100
Inherited from Texas. The state enrolls 52% of 4-year-olds in public pre-K and 11% of 3-year-olds at $4,682 per child, meets 2 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks, reaches 16.4% of eligible children with CCDF subsidies, and offers zero weeks of paid family leave. City-level Dallas programs do not move this score.
In-home care in Dallas
Dallas's in-home care market is concentrated in the affluent corridor running from Highland Park and University Park north through Preston Hollow and into the high-end pockets of North Dallas. Full-time live-out nanny rates in the city typically run in the $25-35/hour band, with experienced career nannies and newborn-care specialists often commanding the upper end. Live-in arrangements are common in the Park Cities and parts of North Dallas where guest quarters or carriage houses make the housing math work.
Nanny shares between two families have grown sharply since 2022, particularly in the Lakewood, M-Streets, and Bishop Arts areas where younger professional households need the cost relief and trust each other's parenting standards. Au pair placements through the State Department's J-1 program continue to rise across the metro as well, particularly among families with multiple kids and a spare bedroom — the all-in cost of an au pair has become competitive with full-time center care for two children in Dallas County.
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).