Of the United States’ 300 million residents, only one percent live in Oregon. That one percent consists of Oregon’s 3.7 million residents, of which 7.6% are under the age of four and 15% are under the age of eleven. Of all Oregon’s families, almost 30% are single-parent families which following suit with the nationwide statistic. In fact, many of Oregon’s statistics, when it comes to child care, are fairly predictable. With one percent of the nation’s residents, and one percent of the nation’s children under the age of eleven, it makes sense that one percent of the nation’s child care centers would also live in Oregon. Based on these statistics of one percent across the board, it seems that Oregon has twice its allotted number of family child care homes with a whopping 2% of the nation’s family child care homes. However, close to none (0%) of the almost 5,000 family child care homes are nationally accredited.
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There is another area that Oregon has unexpected child care statistics. When it comes to what kind of child care is requested, Oregon does not predict the national trend. In fact, when looking at Oregon’s request for before/after-school care in terms of percentages, it comes out at six times that of the national average. Similarly, the request for nontraditional hours care in terms of percentages is almost 2.5 times that of the rest of the United States. However, when it comes to whether or not parents are looking for part-time or full-time care, Oregon goes back to being predictable and falling closely in line with national averages. Both Oregon and the United States split their requests for care at around four out of five requests going to full-time care and the remaining going to part-time.
While predictable in some areas, the need for child care in Oregon can have some surprising features. With needs like these, Oregon can promise to meet many families’ needs for custom child care arrangements. Oregon also boasts the annual Shakespeare festival, national parks, scenic shoreline and rivers, and unique cities like Portland. It’s making to be a win-win destination for all families.
