The ElderCareCosts 2026 Cost of Senior Care Index

National monthly medians

Computed across the latest published state cost records in our database. A national figure appears only when at least five states have data for the same period.

What the monthly number means

Annual figures equal monthly cost times 12. Daily figures divide by 365. The hourly column uses 44 hours per week. For residential care, it is arithmetic context, not an hourly quote.

Agency rate and caregiver wage are different

The in-home estimate is an agency-billed rate. The BLS figure is the median wage for Home Health and Personal Care Aides, SOC 31-1120. The spread can include payroll taxes, insurance, supervision, backup coverage, overhead, and margin.

Published national survey change

This is a four-year national comparison between Genworth 2020 and CareScout 2024 toplines. It is not a state trend. No state-level year-over-year figures are inferred.

State-by-state monthly medians

In-home care and home health care share one figure in every state with 2025 data, because the 2025 survey merged them into a single non-medical caregiver rate. The District of Columbia has no 2025 survey row, so its figures are 2024 estimates from before the merge.

Methodology and limits

The index reads only published cost records; placeholder and test rows are excluded. City records appear in the CSV only when matched to a real geography. Memory care is modeled from each state's assisted-living median plus a 20 to 30 percent premium. Independent living and CCRC are omitted because no complete free state source exists. Read the full methodology.

The index is archived on Zenodo under DOI 10.5281/zenodo.23005532 (CC BY 4.0) and listed in the NIH National Library of Medicine Dataset Catalog. Cite the DOI for a fixed copy; this page carries the current figures.