New Hampshire
Child care in N.H. can be even more expensive than housing, food, and health care – The Boston Globe
CONCORD, N.H. — Some New Hampshire families are spending nearly one-third of their income on child care, according to a new analysis from the Carsey School of Public Policy at the University of New Hampshire.
Child care costs have gone up significantly in recent years, swelling 48 percent from 2013 to 2023 in New Hampshire, the analysis found. And there was an uptick in costs in the post-pandemic years, growing 12.5 percent from 2022 to 2023.
Take, for instance, a family with one infant and a 4-year-old going to a day-care center. They are spending, on average, $33,257 per year on child care: $17,250 per year for the infant, and $16,007 for the toddler, according to the nonprofit Child Care Aware of America.
With the median family in New Hampshire with children under 5 earning about $112,230, according to the analysis, that means about 29 percent of their income would have to go to child care alone.
In the course of a year, that would make child care the single biggest expense for many families, more than the cost of housing ($11,400 to $20,772), food ($12,456 to $13,068), and health care ($12,876 to $13,068), according to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute.
“The prices are rapidly increasing,” said Tyrus Parker, a research scientist at the University of New Hampshire and co-author of the analysis.
What is driving that?
“I think the price increase is due to a mix of factors, although I’d be hard pressed to assign a share to any given factor,” said Jess Carson, director of the Center for Social Policy in Practice at UNH and co-author of the analysis.
The increased cost of rent, utilities, food, and cleaning supplies also affects child-care providers, she said. Plus, there are workforce shortages that can drive up wages to recruit and retain staff, she said. If they don’t have enough staff, providers have to decrease their enrollment – but that doesn’t necessarily bring a proportional savings in operating costs, according to Carson.
And, she said, now that pandemic-era aid has wound down, the only way providers can increase revenue is by increasing tuition. The economic impact can ripple out beyond the immediate families affected, taking parents who can’t afford child care out of the workforce.
“Families have to make compromises based on their economic realities,” said Parker.
“Maybe a family would like their child to be in care five days a week, but instead they have to opt for three days, and then one of the parents goes down to working part time just because the cost of child care is too high,” he said.
This story first appeared in Globe NH | Morning Report, our free newsletter focused on the news you need to know about New Hampshire, including great coverage from the Boston Globe and links to interesting articles from other places. If you’d like to receive it via e-mail Monday through Friday, you can sign up here.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
The New Hampshire Lottery offers several draw games for those aiming to win big.
Here’s a look at Saturday, July 4, 2026 results for each game:
Winning Powerball numbers from July 4 drawing
17-38-46-50-69, Powerball: 20, Power Play: 2
Check Powerball payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 3 numbers from July 4 drawing
Day: 6-5-3
Evening: 8-0-6
Check Pick 3 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Pick 4 numbers from July 4 drawing
Day: 9-8-1-3
Evening: 2-9-4-1
Check Pick 4 payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Megabucks Plus numbers from July 4 drawing
06-10-19-22-33, Megaball: 04
Check Megabucks Plus payouts and previous drawings here.
Winning Millionaire for Life numbers from July 4 drawing
17-20-37-40-43, Bonus: 04
Check Millionaire for Life payouts and previous drawings here.
Feeling lucky? Explore the latest lottery news & results
When are the New Hampshire Lottery drawings held?
- Powerball: 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday.
- Pick 3, 4: 1:10 p.m. and 6:55 p.m. daily.
- Mega Millions: 11:00 p.m. Tuesday and Friday.
- Megabucks Plus: 7:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.
- Lucky for Life: 10:38 p.m. daily.
- Gimme 5: 6:55 p.m. Monday through Friday.
- Millionaire for Life: 11:15 p.m. daily.
This results page was generated automatically using information from TinBu and a template written and reviewed by a New Hampshire managing editor. You can send feedback using this form.
250 years in, and America is still a work in progress. Many American poets have written hymns and howls, declarations and outcries for this country that brims with so many people, and so many hopes, from all over the world.
“I Hear America Singing,” Walt Whitman wrote, in the 1850s.
“…the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
…The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else…”
Emma Lazarus’ “The New Colossus” was inscribed on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal in 1903. It’s a poem in praise of immigrants who were cast out from other lands and found safe harbor in America.
“Give me your tired, your poor,” wrote Emma Lazarus.
“… your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
But Langston Hughes’ 1949 poem, “Freedom,” reminds us that many Black American families did not sail to America under the flame of a welcoming lamp, but were captive, shackled, to be sold into bondage. After the Emancipation Proclamation, many still endured segregation, bigotry and the constant threat of racist violence.
“I tire so of hearing people say, let things take their course,” wrote Langston Hughes.
“Tomorrow is another day.
I do not need my freedom when I’m dead.
I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread.”
This week, as the U.S. Supreme Court upheld birthright citizenship, you might read Shirley Geok-lin Lim’s 2017 poem, “Learning to Love America,” about how immigrants make America their own as they start families here.
“…because to have a son is to have a country,” she writes.
“…because my son will bury me here
because countries are in our blood and we bleed them”
The America great poets see is imperfect, unsettled, and unfinished, even after 250 years. Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote in 1958 these words that still ring out:
“…I am waiting
for a rebirth of wonder
and I am waiting for someone
to really discover America”
Copyright 2026 NPR
A Times Square Ball Drop, a rolling series of ball drops, timed to occur at midnight on July 3 in every U.S. time zone from Guam to American Samoa, is part of the “Giving 4th Broadcast Benefit Show,” creating a nearly 24-hour celebration of the 250th anniversary. It’s part of the broader “Giving 4th” initiative that aims to make and establish Independence Day the biggest annual day of giving.
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