With 4.4 million people, South Carolina is home to 1.4% of nation’s total population, including 1.4% of the nation’s children under the age of 11. Of the almost 700,000 kids in South Carolina, close to one third of them fall into the category of “children under the age of 6 potentially needing child care” based on two-parent families with both parents in the labor force or single-parent families with the parent in the labor force.
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Parents looking for child care in South Carolina will find a proportional number of child care centers. The state has about 1,800 child care centers, appropriately 1.5% of the nation’s total. However, family child care homes are disproportionately low in the state of South Carolina. Although there are still about 1,500 family child care homes in the state, the number comes out to less than one percent of the number nationwide.
South Carolina is unique in the kind of child care requested by its residents when it is compared to national averages. Almost three quarters of the requests in South Carolina are for infant/toddler care while the same request accounts for less than half the requests nationally. On the other hand, the requests for care for school-age children is significantly lower in South Carolina (7%) than it is throughout the nation (25%).
The good news for South Carolinians is that whether the parents are looking for infant/toddler care school-age care, they are more likely to find it at a lower price than other states in the country. For child care in a center, the national range goes from $4,650 to $18,200 with South Carolina falling on the low end of the spectrum at under $6,000. Similarly, the price for a school-age child in a center ranges nationally from $2,450 to over $10,000. Parents in South Carolina will be pleased to hear that the state comes in on the low end again, $3,000 on average.
Child care prices aren’t the only perk to raising children in South Carolina. Surrounded by historic American landmarks, such as Charleston and Fort Sumter, kids will grow exposed to national treasures. Families don’t even have to leave the state to visit beaches or mountains. They have it all, “beautiful places, smiling faces” in South Carolina.
