Statistics Canada has published data on the average cost of early years childcare, and it isn't cheap!
When starting a family, the immediate costs tend to be prioritized, but working parents should always be cognisant of the longer-term implications.
As well as the initial expenses associated with a new baby, parents also face higher costs for public healthcare insurance, an extra mouth to feed, and more.
One of the budget-breaking consequences of holding down a job with a pre-school child is the cost of childcare arrangements, and Statistics Canada has published a new report looking at how much the average Canadian family is paying.
What parents paid for their child’s main childcare arrangement varies by age of child, hours in care and type of childcare arrangement, but based on early 2022 data, the report found that the average amount paid for the main full-time (30+ hours per week) childcare arrangement for their 0- to 5-year-old was $7,790 per year. This rises to $9,616 when Quebec is factored out.
Looking at the average cost of any number of hours of childcare (including part-time) the average paid was around $30 per day.
Costs do decrease as the child approaches school age, with costs for a child aged 0-3 years averaging $8,146 per year or $32 per day, while at ages 4-5 this falls to $6,880 or $27 a day.
A recent report from ISS Market Intelligence highlighted how childcare is one of the barriers to Canada’s financial services industry growing its share of women n the FSB channel.
Location matters
Savings can be made by arranging childcare within a family childcare home, rather than a centre-based environment or within the child’s home.
The average cost for a family childcare home was $7,042 or $29 per day; centre-based full-time childcare was $7,957 per year or $31 per day; while having a non-relative provide care in the child’s home cost $26,669 or $106 per day.
The lowest cost option was having a relative provide childcare, with 59% of children whose main type of childcare was full-time care by a relative having no parental childcare expenses in 2022. For those who paid relatives to provide care, the average cost was $3,517.
