74 Counties In Missouri Are Child Care Deserts

Currently, 74 counties in Missouri are Child Care Deserts, a decrease from 77 counties in October 2022, 75 counties in April 2022, and 70 counties in December 2021. This indicates that there are fewer child care programs for working parents and guardians than just six months and ten months earlier.

Child Care Aware® of Missouri (CCAMO) continually analyzes the number of counties considered Child Care Deserts. Child Care Deserts are defined as 1) a county with greater than 50 children under age 5 that contains either no child care providers or 2) so few options that there are more than 3 times as many children as licensed child care slots.

In a web posting in 2022, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland states, "The lack of affordable and accessible childcare largely affects women with young children and will likely continue to keep some of these women out of the labor force even after the end of the pandemic because of the increased cost of childcare and the long-term job separations experienced by these mothers."

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