For this report, the authors collected data on the locations and capacities of all licensed child care centers in eight states. This subset of states results from the fact that while data was requested from most states, many agencies did not respond or chose not to share administrative data. The eight states that provided complete data are generally illustrative of the state of child care across the country. They include large rural and urban populations, and they exhibit geographic and demographic diversity. These relatively populous states contain one-fifth of the U.S. population under the age of 5. The administrative data on child care center locations included a ZIP code for each center. Using U.S. Census Bureau data, the authors were able to match the child care center locations with census estimates of each ZIP code's demographic, geographic, and economic characteristics. This merged data set was used to compare and analyze the prevalence of child care deserts among ZIP codes of differing types: rural, suburban, and urban; low, moderate, and high poverty; and those of varying racial and ethnic demographic profiles. (author abstract)