Cost of raising a child

What It Means

The cost of raising a child is the total a family spends on one child's needs from birth until they turn 18, including housing, food, child care, school costs, transportation, health care and clothing. A U.S. Department of Agriculture series, "Expenditures on Children by Families", gives the best-known national estimate. Its most recent edition, released in January 2017, covers 2015 and projected that a middle-income married-couple family would spend $233,610 on a child born that year, through age 17. The estimate leaves out pregnancy and college.

How People Say It at Work

• "Kids are expensive, and daycare is half of it."
• "We redid the budget the month the baby came."
• "Housing is the big one nobody counts."

The Breakdown

USDA's estimate for a child born in 2015

For the middle-income married couple, USDA put yearly spending at $12,350 to $13,900 in 2015 dollars.

Where the money went (middle-income married couple, 2015)

Worked example. A family that spends an example $13,000 a year on their child, with 18 years to go, would spend $234,000 by the child's 18th birthday at that pace, or about $1,083 a month. Split by USDA's shares, about $3,770 of the year goes to housing and $2,340 to food.

What moves the number. In USDA's figures, family income makes the biggest difference: the higher-income estimate is more than double the lower one. Within your own budgetBudgetA plan for a set period, usually a month, that lists the money you expect to receive and how you'll spend or save it. See more, housing and child care are the lines to check first, since together they made up 45% of the middle-income family's spending.

Good to Know

USDA's figures are from 2015, and prices have risen since, so treat them as a picture of where the money goes rather than a current price tag. USDA released that report on January 9, 2017, and our search found no newer edition. The estimate stops at age 17 and doesn't count pregnancy or college, so plan those on their own; Buhata's pages on the cost of collegeCost of collegeWhat a year of college costs, tuition and fees plus housing, food, books and travel; College Board's 2025-26 average budget at a public four-year college in-state is $30,990. See more and the 529 plan529 planA state-sponsored, tax-advantaged account for education costs, where growth is free of federal income tax when spent on qualified expenses. See more cover the second.

Related Terms and Categories

• Daycare cost

  What families pay a child care center or home daycare, which Care.com's 2026 Cost of Care Report puts at $332 a week on average.

• Cost of college

  What a year of college costs, tuition and fees plus housing, food, books and travel; College Board's 2025-26 average budget at a public four-year college in-state is $30,990.

• Family budget meeting

  A planned, regular sit-down where the people who share a household's money look at the budget together, make decisions and agree who does what next.

• Child tax credit

  A federal tax credit of up to $2,200 per qualifying child under 17 on 2025 returns, partly refundable, with the full amount at incomes up to $200,000 ($400,000 joint).

• 529 plan

  A state-sponsored, tax-advantaged account for education costs, where growth is free of federal income tax when spent on qualified expenses.

Pay, rates and costs