Child Care in Multnomah County

Over 30,000 children under the age of six in Multnomah County live in families where all parents are in the workforce. Many of these families are likely to need to find child care outside of their home.

752 licensed facilities serving children under 6, 11,792 estimated child care spots for children under 6

The map on the left shows a map of all licensed facilities, symbolized by their estimated number of child care spots serving children under 6.

On the right is a heat map showing the distribution of child care spots in Multnomah County.

If working parents commute to Multnomah from another county, they may be inclined to find child care close to their place of work.

Every day, over 200,000 workers commute to Multnomah County from within the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

While demand for child care may increase due to in-commuting to Multnomah, out-commuting may decrease demand.

Just over 100,000 Multnomah residents commute to jobs in other counties within the Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro MSA.

Census tracts with lower median incomes have larger shortfalls of licensed child care spots.

The figure at right breaks out Multnomah census tracts into quartiles by median income of families with children and shows the total number of additional child care spots needed to meet commuter-adjusted demand.

When looking at the shortfall for specific age groups across income levels, as shown in the figure to the right, it is notable that spots for infants and toddlers account for a greater share of the shortfall in census tracts with higher incomes.

This suggests that while there is a smaller shortfall in spots overall in higher-income tracts, many facilities in these tracts may not prioritize infant & toddler care as much as they prioritize care for preschoolers.

The maps below display the size of the child care shortfall in census tracts with higher (left map) or lower (right map) median incomes.

While centers serve more children, home facilities are more likely to offer care during nontraditional hours.

The interactive dashboard below has many of the data layers from the maps above. You can also add several other demographic and zoning related layers for context.

Use this dashboard to further explore the landscape of child care supply and demand in Multnomah County.

For optimal functionality, click the icon on the upper right of the map to open in a new window.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). Table C23008: Age of Own Children in Families and Subfamilies by Living Arrangements by Employment Status of Parents, 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-year estimates.

U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). Table B19125: Median Family Income by Presence of Own Children, 2017-2021 American Community Survey 5-year estimates. 

U.S. Census Bureau. (2022). LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (2002-2020). Longitudinal-Employer Household Dynamics Program. 

Data provided by the State of Oregon