Census study finds child-care disruptions cost affected households an average 65.8 workdays
A U.S. Census Bureau working paper quantifies how child-care costs and disruptions affected household finances and work decisions in 2024, finding that households reporting problems obtaining adequate care lost an average of 65.8 workdays.
The findings come from new child-care questions included in the 2025 Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement. The Census Bureau published the paper, titled “Child Care Challenges and Adaptations: Findings from the 2025 CPS ASEC,” on May 7, 2026.
The study is based on nationally representative U.S. household survey data. It examines households with children age 13 or younger and looks at both the direct cost of care and the ways families responded when care was difficult to obtain or maintain.
Child care represented a substantial household expense
According to the study, 23.9% of households with children age 13 or younger paid for child care in 2024. Those households spent an average of $10,520 on child care over the year.
That average spending equaled 5.6% of household income. The figure describes the share of income represented by child-care spending among the households covered by the study; it is not a measure of what every household with children paid.
The spending figures provide a national measure of the financial burden associated with paid care. They also put the cost in the context of household earnings rather than presenting the dollar amount alone. For families paying for care, the study’s findings show how child care can occupy a meaningful portion of annual income.
Access problems were linked to lost work time
Cost was not the only issue examined. The study found that 3.7% of households reported problems obtaining adequate child care.
Among households affected by those reported access problems, average lost work time was 65.8 days. The result does not mean that all families using child care lost 65.8 workdays. It applies to the households identified in the study as experiencing problems obtaining adequate care.
The work-loss estimate also should not be read as a causal estimate of the child-care system’s total effect on national employment. It describes the work time reported by affected households in the survey’s analysis of 2024 experiences.
Even with those limits, the finding connects child-care access to a practical household consequence: when adequate care was difficult to secure, some families reported losing substantial time from work.
Household responses differed by income
The Census study also found differences in how households managed child-care disruptions. Higher-income households more often used paid leave to deal with disruptions.
Lower-income households were more likely to leave the labor market, according to the paper. The finding describes different reported household responses by income. It does not establish that every lower-income household left employment or that every higher-income household used paid leave.
Those differences matter because the same child-care disruption can create different options for different families. A household with access to paid leave may be able to preserve employment while handling a gap in care. A household with fewer resources may respond in a way that involves leaving the labor market, according to the study.
Taken together, the figures show three parts of the child-care challenge: a substantial annual expense for households paying for care, reported difficulty obtaining adequate care for some households, and lost work time or employment-related adaptations among affected families.
What the study does—and does not—establish
The paper is a working paper and may not represent a final peer-reviewed estimate. Its findings describe child-care experiences in 2024, even though the paper was published in May 2026.
The Census Bureau’s child-care data work is continuing. Its child-care news page says the agency is continuing to release new Survey of Income and Program Participation and family-related data in 2026. The packet does not identify a specific date for a final version of this working paper or a deadline for additional findings.
For now, the study offers a national snapshot of how child-care affordability and availability intersect with household budgets and participation in work. Its central measures—$10,520 in average annual spending among paying households, 5.6% of household income, 3.7% reporting adequate-care problems and 65.8 average lost workdays among affected households—describe the scale and reach of the issue while preserving the distinctions in the survey’s findings.
Sources
- Child Care Challenges and Adaptations: Findings from the 2025 CPS ASEC, U.S. Census Bureau
- Child Care News, U.S. Census Bureau
Look for updates to this story
Discover more from Interactive News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.