As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Waco ranks the 189th largest city in the nation.
In a McLennan County city anchored by Baylor University and the Brazos River corridor, a year of infant center care runs $8,855 — the cheapest in this Texas cluster, roughly half the national $17,163 average. Childcare workers earn $13.09 an hour against an $18.72 single-adult living wage, covering 69.9% of basic costs — well above the 62.6% national figure. The dynamic isn't unusually generous wages but an unusually low cost floor; either way, the result is the same — Waco centers retain staff at meaningfully better rates than most US cities. Waco scores 62/100, ranking 32nd nationally. Median household income is $51,468, well below national figures, and the single-parent share runs 38.13%. The retention is real; the household side does the offsetting work elsewhere.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- 32nd nationally, score 62 (Moderate) — strongest workforce-health score in the eleven-city Texas cluster.
- Childcare wage covers 69.9% of an $18.72 single-adult living wage — well above the 62.6% national figure.
- Infant center care $8,855 a year — cheapest in the cluster, roughly half the $17,163 national average.
Actionable takeaways
- Waco posts the cluster's strongest workforce score on the cluster's lowest absolute wage. $13.09 an hour reads as poverty-level in DFW; in McLennan County it covers 69.9% of a single-adult living wage. The lesson: cost-of-living geography drives retention at least as much as nominal pay does.
- Baylor University is the demand anchor that keeps the math from collapsing. University faculty/staff demand stabilizes a thin 44-establishment market. Reporters should ask Baylor HR and McLennan ISD how on-campus and partner-provider capacity has shifted year over year.
- The 38.13% single-parent share is the offsetting drag. Workforce health is real; the household composition tells a different story about who actually carries the per-family logistical load. Both numbers belong in any local follow-up.
Affordability — 80/100
A year of infant center care in Waco costs about $8,855, drawn from US Department of Labor pricing for McLennan County. Toddler care averages $8,196 annually; family child care for an infant runs about $7,852 — among the lowest pricing in this entire Texas cluster.
Waco's median household income is $51,468, well below both the Texas median of $76,292 and the national median of $78,538. Even with the lower price point, infant care consumes 17.2% of typical household income — slightly above the Texas state burden of 15.6% but well below the national 21.9%.
A typical Waco family spends roughly $4,300 less per year on infant center care than the national-median household — a savings of about $360 a month. The income floor is lower, but the price floor is lower further.
Supply — 48/100
McLennan County, Waco's county of record, supports about 56 licensed slots per 100 children under five with working parents — under the national 73. Establishment density runs 2.59 licensed providers per 1,000 children under five, below both Texas (3.2) and the national average (4.2).
The county avoids formal "childcare desert" classification but operates with a thin licensed footprint — only 44 establishments serving the city's roughly 9,600 children under five. Family child care and informal kin care tend to fill the gap, particularly in the southern and eastern sections of the city.
Workforce — 94/100
This is Waco's headline dimension. Childcare workers in the Waco metro earn a median $13.09 an hour. The absolute number is below DFW; what matters is the ratio. Against a local single-adult living wage of $18.72 an hour, that pay covers 69.9% of basic costs — well above the 62.6% national figure and 63.0% Texas average, and one of the strongest worker-pay-to-living-wage ratios in this Texas cluster.
The dynamic isn't unusually generous wages but an unusually low cost floor. Either way, the practical effect is the same: Waco centers retain staff at meaningfully better rates than most US cities, which is the precondition for stable infant rooms and consistent classroom culture.
Family strain — 35.1/100
Mothers of children under six in Waco participate in the labor force at 64.99%, just above the Texas average of 62.8% but below the 68.2% national rate. The single-parent share is 38.13%, well above the national share of 31.8%.
The elevated single-parent share is the strain dimension's main weight here. With more than a third of households with children headed by a single adult, the per-family logistical load runs higher than in two-earner-norm cities — and lower-priced care, while it helps, doesn't fully reset that math.
Policy support — 48.1/100
Waco's policy score is inherited from Texas, which enrolls 52% of four-year-olds in state pre-K, spends $4,682 per pre-K child, and meets two of NIEER's ten quality benchmarks. The CCDF subsidy reaches about 16.4% of eligible Texas children. Texas offers no state-funded paid family leave. Policy is measured at the state level.
In-home care in Waco
In-home care in Waco typically reflects metro-wide nanny-market patterns at the lower end of the Texas range, given the city's softer cost-of-living floor. Family child care and informal kin care play larger roles than dedicated nanny placements for most households. Au pair placements remain rare and concentrated among higher-income households tied to medical, university, or agribusiness employers.
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).