How much does it cost to raise a child?
Quick answer
About $233,600
Birth to age 17, USDA, for a child born in 2015, excluding college. More than $300,000 after inflation.
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.
Published 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.
Published 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.
Published 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.
Published source U.S. Department of Agriculture, data year 2015
Your options
Work out your number
Total, birth to 18
$271,560
for a child (U.S. average)
What this means
Spread over eighteen years that is about $1,257 a month. Nearly half of it is housing and food you are largely paying already, so the lines worth pricing yourself are childcare and housing.
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 unless you tick the box.
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Your action plan
Do firstThis week
- Run the calculator with your real household income and state.
- Look up the actual price of the childcare option you would use, rather than assuming.
- Write down your three largest child-related costs right now.
ThenNext month
- Check whether your employer offers a dependent care FSA or similar.
- If your child is under five, work out when the childcare cost drops and what you will do with that money.
- Decide whether you are saving for college, and if so start small rather than waiting to start big.
Keep an eye onWatch 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.
Dad did the math.papacalcs.com
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
- Last reviewed
- October 1, 2026
- Geography
- United States
-
Expenditures on Children by Families (the "cost of raising a child" report)
U.S. Department of Agriculture · data year 2015 · United States
The series was discontinued after this edition. Later figures quoted anywhere, including ours, are inflation adjustments of it rather than new measurements.
-
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · United States
Household spending by category and family composition. It is the survey the USDA child-cost report was built on.
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