Money

How much does it cost to raise a child?

Last reviewed August 30, 2026 · Relevant for ages 0 to 18

Quick answer

The figure most often quoted is about $233,600 from birth to age 17, from the USDA, for a middle-income married-couple family with a child born in 2015, excluding college. Adjusted for inflation that lands somewhere north of $300,000 today. Treat it as an order of magnitude, not a bill: your actual number depends far more on childcare, housing, and where you live than on any national average.

What to consider

The number is an average of very different families
Housing and childcare dominate it, and both vary enormously by location. A national average blends a high-cost city with a rural county.
It is front-loaded and back-loaded, not flat
The under-fives are expensive because of childcare. Teenagers are expensive because of food, transport, and activities. The middle years are usually the cheapest.
Second children cost less
Housing, space, and many durable items are shared. Per-child cost falls meaningfully after the first.
College is not in the figure
The USDA series stops at 17 and excludes higher education entirely. If you are planning, that is a separate and substantial number.
The source has been discontinued
There is no newer official edition. Anyone quoting a current-year figure, including us, is inflating the 2015 data forward.

The numbers

USDA estimate, birth to 17

About $233,600

Middle-income married-couple family, child born in 2015, excluding college. This is the origin of nearly every "cost of raising a child" headline you have seen.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015

Largest single category

Housing, roughly 29% of the total

Mostly the cost of having more space, which is why the number moves so much with where you live.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015

Childcare and education

Roughly 16% on average, and far higher in the early years

For families paying full-time care for an under-five, this is often the largest line in the household budget, above housing.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015

Effect of more children

An only child costs meaningfully more per child

Households with one child spend more per child than households with two, because so little is shared.

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015

Your options

Use the national average as a planning anchor

Best for: Getting a rough sense of scale before a first child

Advantages

  • Quick
  • Widely understood
  • Good enough for a gut check

Disadvantages

  • Ignores your actual location and childcare situation
  • Can badly mislead in either direction

Typical cost: No effort

Build your own from your three biggest lines

Best for: Anyone actually budgeting

Advantages

  • Childcare, housing, and food cover most of the variance
  • Uses prices you can actually look up locally
  • Far more accurate than any national figure

Disadvantages

  • Takes an evening
  • Needs revisiting as stages change

Typical cost: An hour or two

Plan stage by stage instead of to 18

Best for: Families who find the total paralysing

Advantages

  • Matches how the money is actually spent
  • Lets you act on the next three years rather than the next eighteen

Disadvantages

  • Can hide long-horizon items such as college saving

Typical cost: Low

Work out your number

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Cost of Raising a Child Calculator

Estimate what raising your child costs from birth to eighteen, broken down by category and year.

Open the calculator

Your action plan

This week

  1. Run the calculator with your real household income and state.
  2. Look up the actual price of the childcare option you would use, rather than assuming.
  3. Write down your three largest child-related costs right now.

Next month

  1. Check whether your employer offers a dependent care FSA or similar.
  2. If your child is under five, work out when the childcare cost drops and what you will do with that money.
  3. Decide whether you are saving for college, and if so start small rather than waiting to start big.

Watch for

  • Treating the headline number as a debt you owe rather than spending spread over eighteen years.
  • Budgeting from a national average when your local childcare price is double it.
  • Forgetting that the cheapest years are in the middle, which is the best time to build savings.

Common questions

Is the $233,600 figure still accurate?

It was accurate for its own terms: a child born in 2015, to a middle-income married-couple family, to age 17, excluding college. The series was discontinued, so no newer official version exists. Inflation-adjusted it is well over $300,000, but that is an adjustment rather than a new measurement.

Does it include college?

No. It stops at age 17 and excludes higher education entirely.

Does a second child cost the same?

No, meaningfully less. Housing, space, and durable items are shared, so per-child spending falls as family size rises.

Where these numbers come from