The Minneapolis Fed and First Children’s Finance agency shared results from their fifth annual survey of Minnesota childcare businesses, on Wednesday April 2nd.

The survey focused on Minnesota childcare centers and licensed family childcare.

Most of those programs are operating at around 70 percent of their license capacity, which is higher than last year, but there has been a slight dip in the enrollment of preschool and school age children.

That’s important because infants are more expensive to care for, and most childcare centers will make the majority of their money caring for older children

“We hear from providers, that they are at a competitive disadvantage as school-based programs, which often have lower overhead and operational costs because those can be shared with the schools,” said Suzanne Pearl, the Minnesota Director of First Children’s Finance. “And again, the loss of the older children from childcare businesses can mean that those businesses may lose financial viability.”

There are about 75 hundred licensed childcare providers in Minnesota which is about 300 fewer than last year.

“In past years we found that many childcare providers are struggling. What was surprising was that by many measures the gap between childcare centers and family childcare providers have narrowed,” said Tu-Uyen Tran with the Minneapolis Fed. “Family providers are smaller, usually home-based businesses, and in past years they have struggled much more than centers. This year it seems like centers are struggling just as much as family providers.”

You can check out more Minnesota economic data here.