Childcare Costs in Montana (2024): What Full-Time Care Really Costs, by Source
Montana’s childcare prices in this guide come from Child Care Aware of America’s “Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis,” based on its January 2025 survey of state Child Care Resource and Referral networks. Montana’s figures were reported fresh in that survey rather than backfilled from an older Market Rate Survey. The prices below are broken out by age group and care type, reflecting current 2024/2025-survey numbers rather than estimates.
Average annual price of full-time child care in Montana
| Age group | Center-based care | Family child care (home-based) |
|---|---|---|
| Infant | $15,080 · $1,257/mo | $11,700 · $975/mo |
| Toddler | $15,080 · $1,257/mo | $11,700 · $975/mo |
| 4-Year-Old | $14,300 · $1,192/mo | $10,400 · $867/mo |
| Before/After School | $4,875 · $406/mo | $3,900 · $325/mo |
| Full-Time Summer | $3,250 · $271/mo | $2,600 · $217/mo |
Montana’s prices were not asterisked in the source report, meaning they are fresh survey-reported figures from the current CCR&R survey, not backfilled from an older survey. Source: Child Care Aware of America, Tables I & II, “Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis.” A cell reading “Not reported” means CCAoA did not publish a price for that age group and setting in this state — it is not zero and was not estimated.
What this actually means for a family’s budget
A full year of center-based infant care in Montana costs $15,080. That is 137.47% more than the annualized cost of rent in the state and 41.03% more than the annualized cost of a mortgage. It also runs 82.81% higher than the average in-state public college tuition and fees. For a married couple at the state’s median income, that price is 13.4% of household income; for a single parent at the state’s median income, it is 36.2%.
National context
This is the flat 2023 U.S. national average annual wage for childcare workers (BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, occupation code 39-9011), not a Montana-specific figure. CCAoA’s report applies this single national number when ranking every state’s childcare-workforce affordability, so it is NOT evidence about Montana wages specifically. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023 Annual Mean Wage: Childcare Workers, bls.gov/oes/current/oes399011.htm)
What we don’t have for Montana
This page reflects one statewide price for Montana. The U.S. Department of Labor’s National Database of Childcare Prices would give county-level prices instead, which would better show how costs differ across a state as geographically spread out as Montana, and is the stronger source for local precision. It could not be accessed this pass, so the figures here are limited to the statewide numbers from Child Care Aware of America.
How we built this page
Every figure above comes from Child Care Aware of America’s published “Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis” report (Tables I, II, III, XI, and XII), which in turn cites U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 data for income and rent/mortgage figures, and BLS 2023 data for the national childcare-worker wage figure. Reused here under CCAoA’s own republishing terms, which require visible citation to Child Care Aware of America and a link to childcareaware.org — both are provided throughout this page.
- Child Care Aware of America, “Child Care in America: 2024 Affordability Analysis”. Prices from CCAoA’s January 2025 survey of Child Care Resource & Referral State Networks.
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2023, Table B19126 (income) and related housing-cost tables.
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2023 Annual Mean Wage: Childcare Workers (occupation code 39-9011).
