WASHINGTON, March 4, 2021 — More than 40 percent of all children below primary-school age – or nearly 350 million – need childcare but do not have access, according to a new World Bank report launched today. As a result, too many children are spending time in unsafe and unstimulating environments.

The report found that not having child care — or enough child care — costs individual parents more than $5,500 a year, or more than $78 billion in total. And businesses lose $1,640 on average for each working parent due to lost revenue and hiring costs because of insufficient child care, totaling $23 billion annually.

The continuing lack of access to high-quality and affordable child care has more than doubled its blow to the U.S. economy over the last five years, now costing $122 billion in lost earnings, productivity and revenue every year.