As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Hampton ranks the 205th largest city in the nation.
On the Peninsula side of Hampton Roads, anchored by Joint Base Langley-Eustis, a family with one infant in a center pays $13,485 a year — the lowest tuition in the naval cluster, well below the Virginia state average and the national median. Median household income is $67,758, leaving a 19.9% cost burden. Mothers of children under six work at 74.31%, one of the highest rates in the South Atlantic, and 46.18% of households with kids are headed by a single parent — far above the national 31.81%. Hampton scores 53/100 on Beverly's the score, fifth in Virginia. The pairing of high mothers' labor-force participation and high single-parent share reads as economic necessity rather than choice; the local workforce, paid $13.62 an hour, holds the floor for the whole cluster.
Key highlights & actionable takeaways
- Fifth in Virginia, score 53 (Moderate) — most affordable infant burden in Hampton Roads at 19.9% of $67,758 income.
- Infant care $13,485 a year — the lowest tuition in the cluster; rent ratio 0.83.
- Mothers' LFP 74.31%, among the highest in the South Atlantic; single-parent share 46.18% against a national 31.81%.
Actionable takeaways
- Hampton has the cluster's lowest tuition and one of its highest mothers' LFP figures. The combination — $13,485 infant care meets a 74% participation rate — describes the working math of a Peninsula military-economy city where households need every paycheck and the price of care hasn't yet caught up to NoVa drift.
- The Joint Base Langley-Eustis civilian-and-military labor pool drives the participation number. Local follow-ups should compare federal-civilian payroll against base CDC capacity and licensed civilian providers to map how the three feed each other.
- Nearly half the city's families with kids are single-parent households. Pair Hampton with Newport News and Norfolk for any feature on Hampton Roads household structure — together the three cities define a regional pattern that the workforce wage cannot support.
Affordability — 68/100
A Hampton family with one infant in a center pays about $13,485 a year — roughly $1,124 a month, or 19.9% of the city's $67,758 median household income. That tuition is the lowest of any Hampton Roads city in this index and well below the Virginia state average ($17,636) and the national median ($17,163). The childcare-to-rent ratio is 0.83: a single infant slot costs about 83 cents on the dollar versus monthly rent ($1,346), one of the friendlier ratios in the cluster. Compared with the national median, a Hampton family pays roughly $3,700 less per child per year — though they earn about $11,000 less per household than the national norm. Family child care homes drop the bill to about $10,291 for an infant, slightly lower than center care. Hampton's Affordability subscore reflects a city where the price of care has not yet caught up to the cost-of-living drift seen in Northern Virginia.
Supply — 65/100
Hampton offers about 59 licensed slots per 100 children under 5 with working parents — well below the national 73-per-100 figure but in line with the rest of Hampton Roads. The city has roughly 27 licensed establishments serving 8,324 children under 5 (3.24 per 1,000 kids), close to the Virginia statewide density of 3.63 and below the national 4.21. As an independent city anchored by Joint Base Langley-Eustis and a sizable federal civilian workforce, Hampton's supply numbers reflect a smaller-population market: fewer absolute providers, but a manageable provider-to-children ratio. Statewide, the BPC-estimated supply gap is 13.4%.
Workforce — 6/100
The median Hampton childcare worker earns $13.62 an hour ($28,340 annually), covering just 54.4% of the local single-adult living wage of $25.03. The metro shares its workforce data with the rest of Hampton Roads, and the pattern is the same: pay sits nearly $2 below the national median of $15.41 and well below what a Hampton infant-care slot costs each year. The 2,970 childcare workers in the regional labor pool face the same retention math as their peers — and the same classroom closures that follow when a long-tenured caregiver leaves for a job that pays better.
Family strain — 50/100
Mothers of children under 6 in Hampton participate in the labor force at 74.31% — one of the highest rates in the South Atlantic and well above the national rate of 68.21%. Single-parent households make up 46.18% of Hampton families with kids — far above the national 31.81% and similar to neighboring Newport News and Norfolk. The pairing reads as economic necessity rather than choice: about 75% of children under 6 are in homes where every available parent works, and nearly half of those homes have only one available parent.
Policy support — 50/100
Virginia's state-funded pre-K reaches 22% of 4-year-olds and 3% of 3-year-olds, with $6,119 per child in spending. The Commonwealth has no state paid family or medical leave program. CCDF child-care subsidies reach 32.2% of eligible families. Policy is measured at the state level.
In-home care in Hampton
In-home care in Hampton typically reflects metro-wide nanny market patterns, with full-time live-out rates in line with the broader Hampton Roads market. The high single-parent share and the schedule unpredictability of base-tied work mean most local families turn to family-and-friend care or part-time nanny coverage rather than full-time professional in-home care. Nanny shares are an emerging affordability lever among dual-income households on the Peninsula, and au pair placements remain rare at this market level.
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).