The cost of childcare in Rhode Island is among the most expensive in the nation, a ConsumerAffairs report revealed.
Childcare in the Ocean State ranked eighth priciest in America, according to the report, and was 32% higher than the national average.
The monthly cost of full-time, center-based toddler care in Rhode Island is $1,581, or $18,972 a year, the report said.
Rhode Island's median family income is $112,375, per the report, with childcare eating up $16.9% of it.
"According to experts, families are absorbing the cost by running tighter budgets, having fewer children or leaving the workforce," ConsumerAffairs said.
"The (childcare) system may appear more functional than it is because families are absorbing much of the instability themselves," Brittany Walsh, senior associate director at the Bipartisan Policy Center, said in the report.
The state with the highest cost for childcare was Massachusetts, followed by Vermont and Oregon.
The cheapest was Mississippi, with West Virginia and Alabama the second and third most affordable.
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