Study: Childcare More Expensive Than College, Annual Food Bill

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The cost of center-based childcare for infants has risen twice as fast as median income for families over the past decade.

At the NY Times’ Motherlode blog, Lisa Belkin sums up the findings of a new study from the National Association of Child Care Resource Referral Agencies, which shows that the average cost of childcare exceeds—and in some cases more than doubles—the average yearly costs of college tuition and fees in the same state:

Exact numbers vary — from a low of $4,550 per year for infant care in Mississippi in 2009 to a high of more than $18,750 in Massachusetts. Infant care was particularly expensive — the yearly cost of care in a center is higher, on average, than the the yearly cost of food in every region of the United States.

Check out the executive summary and recommendations in the study here.