Childcare Industry
Statistics2026
How many childcare workers, preschool teachers and center directors there are, who employs them, where the jobs are, what they earn and how the outlook differs by role.
Every figure is sourced, dated and linked to the agency that published it.
How many childcare workers are there?
BLS counted 1,010,300 childcare worker jobs, 583,200 preschool teacher jobs and 91,900 preschool and childcare center director jobs in 2025, including the self-employed.
The child care services industry itself employed 1,004,990 wage-and-salary workers in May 2025, and preschool teachers were the largest group at 34.6% of them (calculated).
| Occupation (SOC) | Jobs | Share | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preschool Teachers (except special education) 25-2011 | 347,720 | 34.6% | $36,850 |
| Childcare Workers 39-9011 | 269,970 | 26.9% | $34,170 |
| Teaching Assistants (except postsecondary) 25-9045 | 140,750 | 14% | $34,920 |
| Education & Childcare Administrators, Preschool & Daycare 11-9031 | 60,540 | 6% | $58,090 |
| Cooks, Institution & Cafeteria 35-2012 | 20,620 | 2.1% | $35,150 |
| All occupations | 1,004,990 | 100% | $36,580 |
Wage-and-salary employment and annual median wages in child care services (NAICS 6244), BLS OEWS May 2025.
The five occupations shown are the largest we report for the industry, so they do not sum to the total, and shares are calculated from the published counts.
These are BLS occupation titles, not job-ad titles, so a center’s “lead teacher” or “assistant teacher” appears under whichever occupation its duties match.
Three counts, three meanings.
The OEWS wage survey (518,910 childcare workers) counts payroll jobs only, so it leaves out the self-employed and private households, which BLS says hold 24% and 17% of childcare worker jobs.
BLS Employment Projections (1,010,300) add those workers back.
The Current Population Survey asks households and counted about 1,106,000 employed childcare workers and 644,000 preschool and kindergarten teachers in 2025.
Industry payroll data tell the hiring story: child care services employed 1,048,600 people in February 2020, fell to 676,600 in April 2020 and reached 1,102,100 in January 2026.
Childcare Job Outlook, 2025–2035
BLS projects preschool teacher employment to grow 4% between 2025 and 2035, while childcare worker employment declines 2% and center director employment declines 3%.
Hiring stays heavy anyway: the three roles are projected to need about 222,200 new workers a year (sum of the three projections), mostly to replace people who leave the occupation.
| Occupation (SOC) | Jobs, 2025 | Change, 2025–35 | Openings / yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| Childcare Workers 39-9011 | 1,010,300 | −2% (−19,900) | 150,300 |
| Preschool Teachers 25-2011 | 583,200 | +4% | 66,700 |
| Preschool & Childcare Center Directors 11-9031 | 91,900 | −3% (−2,900) | 5,200 |
BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook figures for 2025–35, including the self-employed.
Openings count jobs from growth and from replacing workers who leave the occupation, which is why a shrinking occupation can still have large hiring needs.
Where the Childcare Jobs Are
California has the most childcare worker jobs (52,780 on payrolls), ahead of New York and Texas.
California also leads for preschool teachers (55,700), ahead of Texas and Florida.
Wage-and-salary employment, BLS OEWS May 2025: the top five states as published.
Self-employed home providers and nannies are not in these counts.
Who Works in Child Care
The median childcare worker is 36.0 years old and the median preschool or kindergarten teacher 39.3, both younger than the all-worker median of 42.1.
Both occupations are overwhelmingly women.
Head Start and public pre-K.
Head Start was funded to serve 715,873 children and pregnant women in fiscal year 2024, with $11,753,187,818 in federal funding.
Its programs employed and contracted with 251,000 staff in 2023–2024 and reported a staff turnover rate of 15%.
Of Head Start Preschool center-based teachers, 94% had an associate degree or higher in early childhood education or a related field, and 56% had a bachelor’s degree.
State-funded preschool enrolled nearly 1.8 million children in 2024–2025, including 37% of 4-year-olds and 9% of 3-year-olds, according to NIEER.
See Head Start staff requirements for what those programs require of new hires.
Childcare Salaries by Role
The national median for childcare workers was $34,980 ($16.82 an hour) in May 2025, for preschool teachers $38,140 and for center directors $59,300.
The bar is the 25th-to-90th-percentile range and the notch is the median, from the same BLS release our salary pages use.
Annual wages from BLS OEWS, May 2025, national figures across all employers.
The employer matters as much as the role: preschool teachers earned a median of $52,800 in educational services but $36,850 in child daycare services, and center directors $90,950 in local public schools against $58,090 in child daycare services.
Childcare workers in child daycare services had a median of $16.43 an hour.
The lowest state medians were $22,050 for childcare workers (Mississippi) and $28,310 for preschool teachers (Alabama).
OEWS covers payroll jobs only, so these figures do not describe home daycare owners or nannies; see childcare staff pay scales for how centers set pay.
Frequently Asked Questions
The questions the sourced data on this page can actually answer, and nothing beyond it.
01How many childcare workers are there in the U.S.?
BLS counted 1,010,300 childcare worker jobs in 2025, including the self-employed.
The wage survey that BLS pay figures come from counted 518,910 wage-and-salary childcare workers in May 2025, because it leaves out the self-employed (24% of the occupation) and private households (17%).
The household-based Current Population Survey counted about 1,106,000 employed childcare workers in 2025.
02How many preschool teachers are there?
BLS counted 583,200 preschool teacher jobs in 2025.
In May 2025 the wage survey counted 478,780 wage-and-salary preschool teachers (except special education), 347,720 of them in child care services.
03How many people work in the child care industry?
BLS payroll data count about 1,086,300 jobs in child care services in September 2026 (preliminary, seasonally adjusted).
That is above the 1,048,600 recorded in February 2020, before the industry fell to 676,600 in April 2020.
04Is the childcare industry growing?
It depends on the role.
BLS projects preschool teacher employment to grow 4% from 2025 to 2035, while childcare worker employment is projected to decline 2% and center director employment 3%.
Even so, BLS expects about 150,300 childcare worker openings, 66,700 preschool teacher openings and 5,200 director openings a year, mostly to replace workers who leave.
05How much do childcare workers make?
The median wage for childcare workers was $16.82 an hour ($34,980 a year) in May 2025.
The lowest-paid 10% earned less than $11.66 an hour and the highest-paid 10% more than $22.12.
By state, the District of Columbia ($47,340), Washington ($41,680) and Massachusetts ($40,900) had the highest annual medians.
06How much do preschool teachers make?
The median wage for preschool teachers was $38,140 a year ($18.34 an hour) in May 2025.
Pay depends heavily on the employer: the median was $52,800 in educational services but $36,850 in child daycare services.
07How much do daycare directors make?
The median wage for preschool and childcare center directors was $59,300 a year ($28.51 an hour) in May 2025.
Directors in child daycare services had a median of $58,090, while those employed by local public schools had a median of $90,950.
08What share of childcare workers are women?
Women were 93.2% of employed childcare workers and 97.1% of preschool and kindergarten teachers in 2025, according to the Current Population Survey.
Hispanic or Latino workers were 28.3% of childcare workers and 18.7% of preschool and kindergarten teachers.
09How many staff does Head Start employ?
Head Start programs employed and contracted with 251,000 staff in the 2023–2024 program year, and parents of current or former Head Start children made up 24% of them.
Programs reported a staff turnover rate of 15% that year.
Methodology & Sources
Every published figure comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Office of Head Start or NIEER, checked against the source and quoted as published with its release or data year.
We use the latest releases: OEWS wages for May 2025, Occupational Outlook projections for 2025–35 and industry payroll employment through September 2026.
Where a figure is a sum or ratio of published numbers, the page says so.
Where our research has no verified figure, such as a count of licensed centers or a single national turnover rate, the page shows less rather than filling the gap.
All figures were reviewed in October 2026.
No SEO stat aggregators and no figures we could not read at the source.
The live-openings block is first-party data from the Childcare Hires job board: every active listing, grouped by our role categories, refreshed automatically and timestamped with an “as of” date.
Posted pay is the median of the ranges employers advertise, shown only for roles with enough listings.
We also save a snapshot of the totals on the first of each month.