The Child Care Desert Map below shows how many children were competing for one slot in a nearby licensed child care facility suitable for their age. An area having three or more children competing for one slot, or without providers, is considered to be a “child care desert,” following the methodology of the Center for American Progress (CAP).
We used the 2022 American Community Survey from the U.S. Census Bureau to estimate the child population. The Michigan Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) database provided data on available child care slots in each Michigan county (Feb. 2023). Urbanicity levels are based on the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) standards, based on which category covers the most land area in a given census tract. More information on the NCES's methodology can be found here.
Limitations of the available data have led to assumptions and limitations that affect the accuracy of the map. Even with these limitations, the map provides a baseline picture of Michigan's child care situations.
- To capture how many children were competing for one slot, we assumed that all families in the ACS data who have children of the specified age need and want child care from licensed providers. The number of children competing for slots is therefore overestimated.
- Licensed child care providers that served children in multiple age groups were assumed to have slots evenly distributed across age groups. All providers were assumed to be operating at full capacity. These assumptions result in an overestimation of available slots, especially for younger age groups, as many providers did not serve at full capacity due to staffing and other challenges.
- Unlicensed, license-exempted, and informal child care providers are not captured in the data. These providers do increase the capacity of the child care ecosystem as a whole. However, the Child Care Desert Map was designed to track the availability specifically of licensed providers.
- Again following the CAP's example, areas with "small population" are those with fewer than 50 children from ages 0-5.
To use the map:
- Enter your zip code or county of interest, or click on a county you'd like to zoom into.