childcare prices · Montana
Childcare Prices in Sanders County
Median annual price $7,662.62 in the 2018 survey, $9,019.31 adjusted to 2023 dollars.
FACTANKER — Full-time infant care at a licensed center in Sanders County, Montana had a median price of $7,662.62 per year in the U.S. Department of Labor's 2018 survey. The department's own inflation adjustment puts that at $9,019.31 in 2023 dollars. Neither figure is what a parent pays today.
Among the 2,818 counties that reported a price, Sanders County ranks in the 48th percentile — the national median is $9,181.01.
All prices on record
| Care type | 2018 survey | 2023 adjusted | Percentile all counties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infant, center | $7,662.62 | $9,019.31 | 48th |
| Infant, family home | $5,747.10 | $6,764.64 | 43th |
| Toddler, center | $6,704.86 | $7,891.97 | 42th |
| Toddler, family home | $5,363.67 | $6,313.32 | 39th |
| Preschool, center | $6,704.86 | $7,891.97 | 54th |
| Preschool, family home | $5,363.67 | $6,313.32 | 44th |
| School-age, center | $6,704.86 | $7,891.97 | 72th |
| School-age, family home | $5,363.67 | $6,313.32 | 60th |
Center-based care costs 33.3% more than family home care for infants, and 25.0% more for preschoolers.
Where this county stands
Infant care at a licensed center, 2023 adjusted. A percentile without its comparison group cannot be verified.
| Comparison group | Counties | Median | This county |
|---|---|---|---|
| all counties reporting | 2,818 | $9,181.01 | 48th percentile |
| within Montana | 56 | $8,946.97 | 51th percentile (rank 28) |
As a share of income
Median family income $44,276.00, survey year 2018.
| Care type | Share of median family income |
|---|---|
| Infant, center | 17.31% |
| Infant, family home | 12.98% |
| Toddler, center | 15.14% |
| Toddler, family home | 12.11% |
| Preschool, center | 15.14% |
| Preschool, family home | 12.11% |
| School-age, center | 15.14% |
| School-age, family home | 12.11% |
County context
The Department of Labor publishes these alongside the prices because childcare cost and female labor force participation are linked. This page reproduces them without asserting a causal relationship.
| Families below the poverty line | 12.8% |
| Women in the labor force | 58.6% |
How this was calculated
Population: all counties reporting a price for the same age group, same setting, same reference year. Counties without a report are excluded and do not count as zero.
Percentile = share of counties with a lower value, rounded commercially. Ties do not count as lower. Median = 50th percentile of the same population, unweighted. Population thresholds use the column “Total population” of the same dataset.
What was measured
Median yearly price, derived from the median weekly price of the state survey times 52. Full-time care. Age groups as defined by the state; where a state gives no definition, the Child Care Aware standard applies.
Not a federal survey. The basis is the Market Rate Surveys that individual states conduct to set their subsidy rates; the Department of Labor harmonized them and aggregated them to county level. “Median” means the median of the prices found in that state’s survey, not the median of a complete list of facilities surveyed federally. Survey methods are not identical between states, and any comparison across state lines carries that difference.
The source imputes missing values: where a county’s price is missing, prices of adjacent age groups are used. Whether the value shown here was surveyed or estimated is not stated in the data table.
What this number is not
Not a state reimbursement rate — that is an administratively set subsidy ceiling, not a parent payment. Not a current price list; for 2026 no nationally comparable county-level dataset exists. Not the newest release. Not an average across settings.
Source and verifiability
| Source | National Database of Childcare Prices |
| Publisher | U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau |
| Prepared by | ICF, contract GS00F010CA |
| Methodology | Technical Report, September 2024 |
| File | Childcare-Prices-by-Age-Children-Care-Setting-Data-Table-2023.xlsx |
| Sheet | AllStates |
| SHA-256 | 4d4d2a176b00cdd7f9bdf5e672ce370f051cd757130b02d511f81e9c14bf5438 |
| Retrieved | 2026-09-16 |
| Original | dol.gov ↗ |
| Licence | public domain under 17 U.S.C. § 105 |
| Coverage | 2,826 of 3,142 counties with at least one price |
| Identifier | FIPS 30089 |
Download the full result table for all counties (CSV) ↓
Cite as
U.S. Department of Labor, Women’s Bureau, National Database of Childcare Prices, Sanders County, FIPS 30089, median annual price for infant center-based care, survey year 2018. Adjustment to 2023 dollars by the publisher. Percentiles, medians and comparison groups: own calculation by FACTANKER. https://factanker.com/us/mt/sanders-county/childcare
Where to go from here
- All data on record for Sanders County
- All counties in Montana
- All US counties
- The full result table (CSV)
Counties with a similar position in Montana
- Lincoln County 49th percentile
- Meagher County 47th percentile
- Big Horn County 49th percentile
- Fallon County 49th percentile
- Beaverhead County 49th percentile
- Sheridan County 50th percentile