As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Tyler ranks the 248th largest city in the nation.

In the Smith County seat and East Texas regional hub of 108,000, infant center care averages $9,028 a year — about $752 a month, the lowest absolute infant price of the eight Texas cities in this batch and among the lowest in the country. Median household income runs $65,527, roughly 17% below the national figure but in line with the East Texas regional norm. Stack the two together and infant care consumes 13.8% of household income, well under the 21.9% national burden. Tyler scores 62/100, ranking 39th nationally. A typical Tyler family pays roughly $8,100 less per year than the national-median household for the same care — the largest absolute savings of any Texas city in this batch. Mothers' LFP runs 61%, seven points below national; the wage returns to a second income are thinner than they are in the high-wage suburbs.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

39th nationally, score 62 (Moderate) — Smith County seat, East Texas regional hub, population 108,000.
Infant care $9,028 a year — lowest absolute price in this Texas batch, $8,100 below the national-median household pays.
Burden 13.8% of $65,527 median income; mothers' LFP 61%, thinner second-income returns than high-wage suburbs.

Actionable takeaways

Tyler delivers the largest absolute price-savings number in the batch. $8,100 less per year than the national-median household pays for the same care. Reporters covering East Texas affordability should treat the savings figure as the central data point — it's larger than any wage differential the local labor market produces.
The 61% mothers' LFP shows the second-income paradox. Cheap care doesn't automatically generate participation when the wage returns to the second income are also thin. Local follow-ups should ask UT Tyler and the medical-center cluster about parental retention.
Tyler is the East Texas analogue to Lubbock and Amarillo. All three rely on a low-cost equilibrium with a regional anchor institution. Reporters can use Tyler to test whether the West Texas pattern holds across the state's smaller regional hubs.

Affordability — 94/100

Center-based infant care in Tyler averages $9,028 a year, roughly $752 a month — among the lowest infant prices recorded in any U.S. city of comparable size. Smith County, which Tyler anchors, sits at the bottom of the national price distribution alongside the rest of the East Texas regional market. Family child care comes in at $8,066, only modestly cheaper than center care — the entire local market is priced low across the board.

Median household income in Tyler is $65,527 — about 17% below the national median but in line with the East Texas regional norm. Stack the two together and infant care consumes 13.8% of household income, well under the 21.9% national burden and inside the Strong band of the affordability index. Toddler center care runs $8,399, preschool $7,870. A typical Tyler family with one infant in center care pays roughly $8,100 less per year than the national median household pays for the same care — the largest absolute savings of any Texas city in this batch.

Supply — 52/100

Tyler counts roughly 56 licensed slots for every 100 kids under five with working parents, with 41 licensed establishments in its Smith County footprint — a density of 2.72 per thousand kids under five, among the lighter readings in this batch. This is a moderate supply reading. The East Texas market is dominated by smaller centers and a still-meaningful licensed family-care footprint, with less large-chain center development than the Houston or DFW metros further west. This is not a childcare desert. Texas's statewide BPC supply gap of 7.9% remains the smallest in the country, and Tyler inherits the broader benefit.

Workforce — 48/100

Childcare workers in the Smith County market earn a median $12.55 an hour — $26,110 a year. The local single-adult living wage is $20.62 an hour, putting childcare wages at 61% of what one adult needs to live in the county. The wage-to-living-wage ratio is one of the better readings of the Texas cities in this batch — driven less by elevated wages than by Smith County's lower cost-of-living floor. The Tyler labor market is small — just 260 workers in the formal occupational count — and reflects the general East Texas pattern: low absolute wages that align with low absolute living costs but leave little headroom for retention against retail or warehousing alternatives. Texas offers no state-funded workforce supplement.

Family strain — 41.9/100

Sixty-one percent of Tyler mothers with kids under six are in the labor force — seven points below the national 68% — and the city's single-parent share, at 30%, sits roughly in line with the national 32%. The lower mothers' LFP reading reflects the East Texas demographic mix: a meaningful share of two-parent households where one parent stays home during the under-six years, plus the lower wage returns to a second income that make paid childcare a thinner financial proposition than it is in the high-wage suburbs. The strain score lands toward the lower end of this batch.

Policy support — 48.1/100

Texas policy inherits down to Tyler. The state enrolls 52% of four-year-olds in pre-K and spends $4,682 per child. Texas offers no state-mandated paid family leave. CCDF subsidy reach covers 16.4% of eligible kids statewide. Texas meets two of NIEER's ten quality benchmarks. For Tyler — a regional center where federal subsidy and Head Start enrollment carry a meaningful share of the local childcare ecosystem — the state policy ceiling is felt locally. Policy is measured at the state level.

In-home care in Tyler

In-home care in Tyler typically reflects East Texas regional patterns, with full-time live-out nanny rates running materially below Houston and DFW metro bands and the market largely informal rather than agency-mediated. Nanny shares between two families are uncommon at this scale. Au pair hosting is rare outside a small number of professional households associated with the regional medical center and the Tyler Junior College / UT Tyler footprint. Most families with in-home help find it through extended family networks or word-of-mouth community channels.

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.