How much does it cost to raise a child?

Set your household income and state to get an estimate from birth to 18, with a breakdown by category. The underlying data is the USDA series, and its limits are stated below rather than buried.

Last reviewed August 30, 2026 · Runs in your browser

Total, birth to 18

$310,000

for a child (U.S. average)

Household income before tax $80,000

Where you live

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This is our only child Include an estimate for college

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Where it goes

Housing —

Food —

Childcare and education —

Transportation —

Healthcare —

Clothing —

Miscellaneous —

Built on the USDA Expenditures on Children by Families series (data year 2015), inflation-adjusted and scaled by income and state. The series was discontinued, so this is an adjustment of that data rather than a new measurement. Excludes college.

What this result means

This is spending spread across eighteen years, not a bill. At the national average it works out to somewhere around a few hundred dollars a week, most of which is housing and food you are already paying for.

The number moves far more with where you live and what childcare you use than with anything else. Treat the national average as an order of magnitude and your own three biggest lines as the real answer.

It excludes college entirely. If you are planning for that, it is a separate and substantial figure.

How it works

Start from a birth-to-18 base for a middle-income two-child family, inflation-adjusted from the USDA series.
Scale by household income, interpolated between eight anchor points, because higher-income families spend more per child.
Scale by a state cost-of-living multiplier, where 1.00 is the national average.
If it is an only child, apply a 1.27 multiplier, since siblings share housing, space, and durable items.
Divide by the chosen period: 18 for a yearly figure, 216 for a monthly one.
Split across seven spending categories using the USDA proportions.

A worked example

Household income $80,000, national average state, two children.
The income multiplier at $80,000 interpolates to roughly 0.87.
Base $310,000 × 0.87 × 1.00 = about $270,000 to age 18.
That is roughly $15,000 a year, or about $1,250 a month.
Housing at 29% accounts for about $78,000 of the total.

Assumptions and limits

The USDA series was discontinued after the 2015 data year. Any current figure, including this one, is an inflation adjustment of that data rather than a new measurement.
It excludes college and any higher education cost.
State multipliers are broad cost-of-living approximations, not measured child-cost differences by state.
It assumes a two-parent household, which is what the underlying series measured.
The college estimate, if enabled, is a rough four-year figure and not tailored to any institution.

Sources

Expenditures on Children by Families (the "cost of raising a child" report) U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015 The series was discontinued after this edition. Later figures quoted anywhere, including ours, are inflation adjustments of it rather than new measurements.
Consumer Expenditure Survey U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Household spending by category and family composition.

Common questions

Where does the $233,610 figure come from?

The USDA Expenditures on Children by Families report, for a middle-income married-couple family with a child born in 2015, to age 17, excluding college. It is the source of nearly every headline you have seen on this topic.

Is that figure still current?

The series was discontinued, so there is no newer official edition. Inflation-adjusted it is well over $300,000, but that is an adjustment rather than a fresh measurement, and we say so rather than presenting it as new data.

Does it include college?

No. The series stops at 17 and excludes higher education entirely.

Why does a second child cost less?

Housing, space, and many durable items are shared. Per-child spending falls as family size rises, which is why an only child carries a higher multiplier here.

The decisions behind this number

A number on its own does not tell you what to do. These walk through the decision.

Knowing the number is the easy part.

The calculator gives you the figure. This is for the part that has to happen every week afterwards.

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