As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Fort Worth ranks the 12th largest city in the nation.

Fort Worth and Dallas share Tarrant County's labor market, the same DFW childcare wage floor of $14.31 an hour, and the same flat tuition prices in the $13,000 range. They do not share family structure. Fort Worth's $76,602 median household income runs $9,000 above Dallas's; mothers' labor force participation is 66.9% against Dallas's 59.3%; the single-parent share is 32.5% against 39.8%. The Family Strain dimension reads 51/100 in Fort Worth, 22 in Dallas — a 30-point gap inside a single metroplex. Fort Worth's larger share of intact two-earner middle-class households absorbs the same childcare costs differently than its larger neighbor. The city ranks 23rd of 31 in Texas, 88th of 250 nationally — well above Dallas's last-in-state finish on identical inputs.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

Score 55 (Moderate), ranked 88 of 250; 23rd of 31 in Texas — Family Strain reading 30 points above Dallas's on the same labor market.
$76,602 median income carries Tarrant County's $13,443 infant tuition at 17.5%, against 19.3% in Dallas on identical prices.
Mothers' labor force participation 66.9% (vs Dallas 59.3%); single-parent share 32.5% (vs Dallas 39.8%) — different metroplex halves.

Actionable takeaways

Same metroplex, different family structure. Fort Worth and Dallas pay identical childcare prices in the same labor market and post a 30-point gap on Family Strain — the cleanest evidence in this report that household composition, not pricing, drives ranked outcomes.
The DFW workforce floor is the joint constraint. $14.31/hour at 59.3% of a Tarrant County living wage pulls down both Fort Worth and Dallas equally; any retention solution has to be metro-wide, not city-by-city.
Westside professional density is the in-home care tell. Westover Hills and the affluent corridors west of downtown carry the nanny-share growth — typical of TX cities where the policy floor is uniform.

Affordability — 73/100

A year of full-time infant center care in Tarrant County runs $13,443 — about $3,700 below the national average. The figure consumes 17.5% of Fort Worth's $76,602 median household income, a meaningfully lighter burden than Dallas County families face on the same dollar prices. Toddler care is $12,386; preschool, $11,511; family child care infant care, $11,833.

Tarrant County prices sit roughly 13% above the Texas state average for infant center care, reflecting the broader Dallas-Fort Worth metro premium. Childcare-to-rent runs 0.79 — rent ($1,412/month) still exceeds tuition, but only by about a fifth. A Fort Worth family with one infant in center care pays roughly $1,500 more per year than the Texas state median.

The income difference between Fort Worth and Dallas — about $9,000 at the median — is the cleanest single explanation for why the two cities, sharing tuition prices and labor markets, post different cost-burden numbers.

Supply — 54/100

Tarrant County has roughly 95,000 licensed slots and 171,000 children under 5 with working parents — the same Texas-wide ratio of 56 slots per 100 kids in need. The county's 388 licensed establishments work out to 2.80 per 1,000 children under 5 — below the Texas state figure of 3.17 and well below the national rate of 4.21.

Fort Worth's supply density tracks the broader Tarrant County pattern: a steadily growing population that has outpaced provider capacity additions, leaving real friction for families seeking infant or toddler spots in the well-regarded center networks.

Workforce — 33/100

The median Tarrant County childcare worker earns $14.31/hour — about $29,760 a year — or 59.3% of the local living wage of $24.14/hour. The metro-wide OEWS wage figure is identical to Dallas because the labor market is a single unit, and the Workforce Health reading of 32.5/100 is correspondingly the same. The wage cannot independently support an adult life in the metro, and Fort Worth centers face the same teacher pipeline leak — into retail, warehouse, and gig work — that defines the broader DFW childcare workforce.

Family strain — 51/100

Mothers' labor force participation among kids under 6 sits at 66.9% in Fort Worth — well above the Texas state average of 62.8% and approaching the national rate of 68.2%. Single-parent households make up 32.5% of families with kids — only slightly above the national average. The Family Strain reading of 50/100 is dramatically stronger than Dallas's 22.4/100, reflecting Fort Worth's larger share of intact two-earner middle-class households.

The split is part of what distinguishes Fort Worth from the Dallas city core: the demographic and household structures that drive the Family Strain dimension diverge sharply between the two halves of the DFW metroplex.

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.

In-home care in Fort Worth

In-home care in Fort Worth typically reflects the broader Dallas-Fort Worth metro nanny market, with full-time live-out rates in line with Tarrant County professional household norms. Demand is concentrated among the affluent neighborhoods west and southwest of downtown and across the Westover Hills corridor. Au pair placements through the State Department's J-1 program have grown across Tarrant County, particularly among multi-kid families with the housing capacity to host. Nanny shares between two professional families have become an increasingly common middle path.

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.