As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, West Jordan ranks the 239th largest city in the nation.
West Jordan, a Salt Lake County suburb of about 117,000, ranks first among Utah cities in this index on the back of a single number: a $103,960 median household income that is among the highest in the cohort. A year of center-based infant care runs $13,887 in 2025 dollars — the same Salt Lake County price its neighbors pay — and consumes just 13.4% of pre-tax income, well below both the 21.9% national average and Utah's already-favorable 15%. The catch is supply, not price: Salt Lake County licenses about 32 slots for every 100 working-parent kids under five, formally a childcare desert. Families have the income to afford care relative to most of the country, but cannot reliably find a slot. West Jordan ranks 66th of 250 — first of four Utah cities.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- 66th nationally, score 57 (Moderate) — Utah's highest, Salt Lake County suburb of about 117,000.
- Infant care eats 13.4% of the $103,960 median household income — among the lightest cost-to-income ratios in the West.
- Salt Lake County remains a childcare desert; families have the income but cannot reliably find a slot — long waitlists are the binding constraint.
Actionable takeaways
- West Jordan is Utah's highest-ranked city in the index, lifted entirely by income. A $103,960 median household income drops infant-care burden to 13.4% — among the lightest cost-to-income ratios in the West. Same Salt Lake County price every neighbor pays; West Jordan households just earn more.
- Like West Valley City, West Jordan does not follow the Provo pattern. 66.7% mothers' LFP — eleven points above Utah's statewide 56% — points to dual-earner working families as the norm. Useful contrast for any "Utah is unique" framing.
- The constraint is finding a slot, not paying for one. Income absorbs the price; the desert classification (32 slots per 100 working-parent kids, county-wide) is what creates the long waitlists. Family childcare homes and religious half-day preschools fill the gap that licensed centers cannot.
Affordability — 94/100
A year of infant center care in Salt Lake County costs about $13,887 in 2025 dollars — roughly $1,157 a month. For a West Jordan family at the local median household income of $103,960, that bill consumes 13.4 percent of pre-tax income, well below the 21.9 percent national average and even below Utah's already-favorable 15 percent. The 2023 baseline price was $11,208; the 2025 figure reflects forward-projected NDCP and Child Care Aware data for Salt Lake County.
Family child care homes are cheaper still at $11,157 a year, and toddler center care comes in at $11,848. Infant center care is about 70 percent of the local median monthly rent of $1,650 — childcare matters for the budget but doesn't dominate it. West Jordan's strong affordability score comes almost entirely from the income side of the ratio: prices are the same as in neighboring Salt Lake City and West Valley City, but West Jordan households earn more, so the same dollar bill consumes a smaller slice. A family in the lower half of the local income distribution still confronts the same $13,887 sticker price.
Supply — 30/100
Salt Lake County has roughly 31,098 licensed slots against 96,582 kids under five with working parents — about 32 slots for every 100 children who need them, against a national rate of 73. This is a childcare desert by the standard definition. There are about 3.81 licensed establishments per 1,000 children under five locally, slightly under the 4.21 national rate but reasonable; the binding constraint is total seat count, not provider density.
Utah as a whole shows a 40.1 percent supply gap. West Jordan draws from the same county-wide pool as Salt Lake City, West Valley City, Sandy, and Sandy's southern suburbs — and that pool is full. The pattern shows up in waitlists, scarce infant openings, and family-network caregiving filling the gap.
Workforce — 51/100
Salt Lake County's median early educator earns $15.19 an hour, or about $31,580 a year working full-time. That's 61.6 percent of the local single-adult living wage of $24.64 an hour — meaning a typical childcare worker cannot, on her own income alone, cover basic expenses in the county where she works. Total childcare employment in the county is about 1,670 workers across roughly 297 establishments.
The wage figure is a hair below the national $15.41 and slightly above Utah's statewide $14.84. At these rates, the system loses workers to better-paying entry-level jobs in retail and warehousing — both abundant in West Jordan — which feeds back into the supply gap above. Closing the wage-to-living-cost gap requires either substantially higher tuition (in tension with the city's strong affordability score) or a larger public subsidy.
Family strain — 61/100
Some 66.7 percent of West Jordan mothers with children under six are in the paid labor force, well above Utah's statewide 56 percent and just under the 68 percent national figure. West Jordan looks nothing like the lower-LFP pattern of Provo and Utah County — this is a working-family city with both parents in the paid workforce as the norm. The single-parent share is 23.9 percent, higher than the 19 percent state average but lower than the 31.8 percent national figure.
The combination — high household income, high maternal employment, larger family sizes, and a county-wide supply gap — produces the central tension in West Jordan's childcare picture. Families have the income to afford care relative to most of the country, but cannot reliably find a slot. That tension shows up in long waitlists and a heavy reliance on family child care homes, religious half-day preschools, and informal arrangements.
Policy support — 32/100
Policy is set in the state capitol, not at city hall. Utah enrolls roughly 3 percent of four-year-olds in state-funded pre-K and 2 percent of three-year-olds, with per-child spending of about $3,326 — among the smallest publicly funded preschool footprints in the country. The state meets 6 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks. CCDF subsidies reach an estimated 20.7 percent of eligible Utah children, and the state has no paid family or medical leave law on the books. Head Start and Early Head Start serve about 5,210 children statewide. Federal subsidies and a small state pre-K line do most of the public lifting in West Jordan.
In-home care in West Jordan
In-home care in West Jordan typically reflects metro-wide Salt Lake nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates broadly in line with the Wasatch Front market — often quoted in the high-teens to low-$20s per hour for one child, with higher rates for multiples or non-standard schedules. With high household incomes and a tight licensed-care market, West Jordan is a natural fit for private nanny arrangements and nanny shares — two families splitting one caregiver — that bridge the supply gap at sub-center cost. Au pair placements suit larger families with the room to host and the schedule flexibility to use live-in care.
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).