The conversation around child care is often focused on affordability. But for millions of families, the problem is twofold: Costs are too high, and there’s simply not enough care to be found.
New analysis, nearly a decade after its groundbreaking 2018 nationwide scan, from the Center for American Progress, in collaboration with the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and Stanford University, finds that post-pandemic, 46 percent of children under age 6 live in licensed child care deserts—areas where supply falls far short of demand.
The crisis is especially acute in rural communities, where more than 70 percent of families in the most remote areas lack sufficient options. And while conditions have improved slightly since 2018, access remains out of reach for nearly half the country. Insufficient licensed supply cuts across both blue and red states, deepening racial inequities and exacerbating lengthy waitlists—and lack of funding in programs like Head Start leaves the nation’s most vulnerable families behind.
This isn’t just a family issue—it’s an economic one. Decades of underinvestment have constrained supply, suppressed wages for early educators, and left families with too few options. When parents can’t find care, they’re forced to cut back work or leave jobs altogether—costing the nation’s economy billions in lost wages, productivity, and tax revenue—while children miss out on critical early learning opportunities during the most consequential period of development.
