As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary this year, Tacoma ranks the 104th largest city in the nation.

In Tacoma, a year of center-based infant care runs $19,415 — about $8,200 cheaper than the same room in King County — yet eats a heavier share of household income than Seattle. The arithmetic: Pierce County prices sit between Seattle's and the Washington state average, but Tacoma's $83,857 median household income runs $38,000 below Seattle's, pushing the burden ratio to 23.2% versus Seattle's 22.7%. The supply ceiling is identical: 32 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids under five, formally a childcare desert. Centers compete for caregivers against Joint Base Lewis-McChord civilian roles, MultiCare, and Port of Tacoma logistics jobs that start above $20 an hour. Single-parent households account for 39.3% of families with children, the highest in the Washington cohort. Tacoma ranks 185th of 250.

Key highlights & actionable takeaways

185th nationally, score 44 (Strained) — fourth in Washington's five-city cohort, ahead only of Spokane.
Infant care eats 23.2% of household income — heavier than Seattle's 22.7% despite Pierce County prices running $8,200 cheaper.
Pierce County is a childcare desert by the same statewide threshold catching King County; 32 licensed slots per 100 working-parent kids under five.

Actionable takeaways

Tacoma's burden ratio is heavier than Seattle's, despite paying $8,200 less per year. Pierce County prices are real, but the income gap to Seattle is bigger — $83,857 here against Seattle's $121,984. Same Puget Sound, very different family math.
Childcare functions as a second housing payment. With infant tuition at $1,618 a month against $1,597 median rent, the two line items are essentially identical. That equality is a useful framing for a city where many households can absorb one but not both at peak.
Centers compete with Joint Base Lewis-McChord, MultiCare, and Port of Tacoma logistics. All three start above $20/hr with simpler workload than caring for infants — the bidding war is identical to King County's, just at a Tacoma-specific scale.

Affordability — 37/100

A year of infant center care in Pierce County runs $19,415 — about $2,250 above the national $17,163 figure and roughly $2,350 below the Washington state average of $21,767. Tacoma sits between Seattle prices and the rest of the state, but its $83,857 median household income lands roughly $38,000 below Seattle's. The result: infant tuition consumes 23.2% of pre-tax income here, slightly worse than the 22.7% reading just up I-5 in Seattle.

Toddler center care drops to $17,383 and family-childcare-home rates run $15,750 — only modestly cheaper than center care, a narrower spread than in most US metros. Childcare to rent runs 1.01, just at the threshold where annual infant care equals annual rent. For a Tacoma family with one infant in full-time center care, the math comes to roughly $1,618 a month in tuition against a $1,597 median rent — childcare effectively functions as a second housing payment.

Supply — 24/100

Pierce County logs an estimated 22,863 licensed slots against 71,475 kids under five with working parents — 32 slots per 100 such kids, identical to the King County reading and well into childcare-desert territory. The county counts 194 licensed establishments, or 3.4 sites per 1,000 children under five — below the national density (4.21) and notably below Washington's statewide baseline (4.9). Statewide, the Bipartisan Policy Center pegs Washington's gap between potential demand and licensed supply at 45.3%, and Pierce County sits at the harder end of that statewide picture.

Workforce — 79/100

The median Pierce County childcare worker earns $19.32 an hour — about $40,180 a year — equal to 66.1% of the local single-adult living wage of $29.21. The figure mirrors King County's because OEWS treats the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro as a single unit. In Tacoma's local context, the wage runs slightly stronger relative to area cost-of-living than in Seattle proper, but centers still bid for caregivers against Joint Base Lewis-McChord civilian roles, MultiCare and CHI Franciscan Health, and Port of Tacoma logistics — most of which start above $20/hr with simpler workload. The net effect is the same retention pressure that drives turnover and waitlists across King and Pierce counties.

Family strain — 42/100

Mothers of kids under six work outside the home at a 68.0% rate in Tacoma — almost exactly the 68.2% national figure and five points above Washington's state average of 62.8%. Single-parent share runs 39.3%, the highest in the Washington cohort and well above the 31.8% US figure. Combined with the affordability picture, the reading describes a city where most mothers of young children are working, the majority of those households include only one parent, and the gap between paychecks and infant tuition is doing real damage.

Policy support — 57/100

Washington enrolls 17% of 4-year-olds and 8% of 3-year-olds in state pre-K, spending $12,808 per enrolled child and meeting 8.2 of NIEER's 10 quality benchmarks. The state CCDF subsidy reaches 19.8% of eligible families and serves about 24,500 children a month. Washington's Paid Family and Medical Leave program, in effect since 2020, offers up to 12 weeks at 90% wage replacement. Policy is measured at the state level; every Washington city in this index inherits the same 57.1 score.

In-home care in Tacoma

In-home care in Tacoma tracks the broader Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro nanny market, with full-time live-out rates running below central-Seattle and Eastside bands but above the Inland Northwest. Nanny shares between two Pierce County families have grown as a workaround for the spread between center prices and single-family nanny rates. The au pair channel sees use among Joint Base Lewis-McChord-adjacent dual-career households needing live-in coverage for shift schedules.

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.