Since different US states regulate childcare very differently, it seems silly to compare "licensed childcare headcount" across states as if it was some invarian

Since different US states regulate childcare very differently, it seems silly to compare "licensed childcare headcount" across states as if it was some invariant. And "unlicensed childcare" could merely mean "potentially very high quality childcare, just involving <8 children and the person doesn't have a license, or in a part-time/reciprocal arrangement". Whereas in other states it could be much worse. Maybe it's a less meaningless methodology to try to estimate demand vs availability by looking at childcare prices in a locality normalized by per-capita income?