How Much Does It Cost to Raise a Child?

Published by Radif Partners · Updated

The short answer is that raising a child from birth to eighteen costs between $237,000 and $370,000 in the United States, £160,000 and £220,000 in the United Kingdom, and roughly €150,000 to €200,000 in Germany, excluding higher education in every case. Those totals come from national expenditure surveys restated in current prices, and they describe a middle-income two-parent household rather than any particular family. The spread inside them is larger than the gap between countries: housing and childcare together account for close to half the total, and both are set by where you live rather than by how you parent. A family with grandparent childcare in a low-cost region will spend a third less than the headline figure, while two children under three in paid nursery care in a coastal city can exceed it within the first five years alone.

Cost by country

Country Birth to 18 Total Annual Average Biggest Expense
United States $237,000-$370,000 $13,000-$20,500 Childcare/Housing
United Kingdom £160,000-£220,000 ($200,000-$275,000) £8,900-£12,200 Childcare
Australia A$260,000-$340,000 A$14,400-$18,900 Childcare/Education
Canada C$280,000-$365,000 C$15,500-$20,300 Housing
UAE AED 600,000-1,200,000 ($163,000-$327,000) AED 33,000-66,700 School fees
Germany €150,000-€200,000 €8,300-€11,100 Housing
Japan ¥20M-¥30M ($140,000-$210,000) ¥1.1M-¥1.7M Education

Where the money goes (US breakdown)

Cost by age bracket

Age Annual Cost (US avg) Key Expenses
0-2 $15,000-$22,000 Childcare (peak), gear, diapers, formula
3-5 $12,000-$18,000 Preschool, activities start
6-8 $10,000-$15,000 School supplies, activities, after-school
9-11 $10,000-$16,000 Sports/activities ramp up, electronics
12-14 $11,000-$17,000 Bigger appetite, social activities, phone
15-17 $13,000-$20,000 Driving, college prep, prom, more independence

The first two years are the most expensive due to childcare. Costs dip in middle childhood, then rise again in the teen years.

What the USDA numbers don't include

How costs vary by location (US)

The single biggest variable is childcare. A family using grandparent care saves $10,000-$20,000/year compared to daycare.

How to think about these numbers

These numbers can feel paralyzing. But remember: almost nobody pays the "average." You make choices, breastfeeding vs formula, daycare vs grandparents, new vs secondhand, that can shift your total by $100,000 or more over 18 years. The families spending $370,000 are making different choices than the families spending $237,000. Neither is wrong. The point is to make those choices intentionally, with real numbers.

What drives the difference between families

Four decisions move the eighteen-year total more than everything else combined, and none of them is about brands or baby gear.

The first five years versus the next thirteen

Spending is front-loaded in a way the annual averages disguise. Roughly a third of the eighteen-year total is spent before the child starts school, because paid childcare coincides with the years when parental earnings are lowest and one parent is most likely to be working reduced hours. From five to twelve, costs fall sharply: school replaces nursery, clothing lasts longer, and food is still cheap. From thirteen the curve turns up again, food, phones, activities, then driving lessons and insurance in the last two years.

The practical consequence is that a household budget built on the annual average will be badly wrong in both directions. It will understate the nursery years by 40 to 60 per cent and overstate the primary school years by a similar margin. Budgeting by phase, and treating the primary years as the window in which to rebuild savings, matches what families actually experience.

Costs that are usually left out

Item Typical cost Why it is missed
Lost earnings from reduced hours $20,000–$150,000 over a career It is income forgone, not money spent, so no expenditure survey records it
Lower pension contributions $15,000–$60,000 at retirement The effect appears decades after the decision
Higher insurance premiums $3,000–$6,000 a year for family cover Often counted as a household cost rather than a child cost
Orthodontics $3,000–$7,000 once Falls outside routine healthcare averages
Teenage driving $1,500–$3,000 a year Concentrated in two years, so it disappears into an annual mean
University $100,000–$300,000 Excluded from every birth-to-eighteen total by definition

A worked example: two families, same country

Take two American families with one child born the same month, both earning around the median household income. The first lives in a metropolitan area on the East Coast, uses licensed nursery care from six months, and rents a two-bedroom apartment. Nursery alone costs $21,000 a year for three years, the extra bedroom adds $9,600 a year, and their eighteen-year total lands near $370,000.

The second lives in a mid-sized city in the Midwest. A grandparent covers three days a week and a home-based provider the other two, at $9,000 a year. The extra bedroom costs $2,900 a year in a house they already own. Their total is closer to $240,000. Neither family made unusual choices, neither is frugal or extravagant, and the $130,000 difference between them is almost entirely childcare and housing. This is why the national average is a poor planning figure, and why a calculator that asks where you live is worth more than one that does not.

How to use these numbers when planning

Plan the first five years in detail and the following thirteen as a trend. The near years are the ones you can actually forecast: you know the nursery rates in your area, the leave your employer offers, and the credits you qualify for. Build that as a monthly figure and stress-test it against one parent working four days rather than five. For the later years, a per-year allowance indexed to inflation is enough, reviewed when the child starts school and again at thirteen.

Treat higher education as a separate savings goal with its own horizon, not as a line in the child-rearing budget. Mixing the two makes an optional, eighteen-years-away cost look like an unavoidable one, and it is the fastest way to make the whole exercise feel hopeless.

Why the country totals differ

The seven countries in the table above are not expensive or cheap in the same way, and the reason matters if you are comparing offers in two of them. In the United States the two big variables are childcare and health insurance, neither of which is capped: a family can face $22,000 of nursery fees and a $6,000 premium increase in the same year with no public ceiling on either. In the United Kingdom and Germany, health costs are largely removed from the equation and childcare is partly subsidised, which compresses the range but does not eliminate it, London nursery fees are roughly double those in the North East.

In Australia and Canada the childcare subsidy is means-tested and taper rates matter more than headline fees, so two families with similar gross incomes can pay very different net amounts. In the UAE the shape is different again: healthcare is generally employer-insured and childcare is comparatively cheap, but school fees start at age three or four and run to eighteen, which is why the UAE total spans a factor of two depending on the school chosen. Japan sits at the low end for everyday costs and the high end for education, with cram school and university preparation concentrated in the final years.

The second child, and the third

Families planning more than one child consistently overestimate the total, because they multiply the first child's cost. The marginal cost of a second child is 60 to 75 per cent of the first in most estimates, and the saving comes from three places: the housing step has already been taken, durable equipment is reused, and clothing and toys pass down. Nursery providers frequently discount a second sibling by 5 to 15 per cent, and several countries' family benefits rise with the number of children rather than staying flat.

There is one exception, and it is a large one. Two children in full-time paid childcare at the same time is the most expensive situation most families ever face: $24,000 to $45,000 a year in the United States, £20,000 to £35,000 in London. It typically lasts two to three years and it frequently exceeds the after-tax salary of the lower-earning parent, which is why the spacing between children changes a household budget more than almost any other decision. Spacing births three or more years apart avoids the overlap entirely; spacing them by two creates it for roughly a year.

The third child is cheaper again per head on everything except space and transport, where a seven-seat car and a fourth bedroom are step changes rather than gradual increases. Families who reach three children usually find the jump happened at the vehicle and the house, not at the nappies. Both are one-off decisions that can be planned years ahead, which makes the third child the easiest of the three to budget for accurately.

Sources

The figures on this page come from the published sources below. Where a source states a national average, the range shown here reflects the spread behind it rather than the mean alone; our methodology explains how.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does it cost to raise a child to 18?
The USDA estimated $233,610 in 2015, which adjusts to approximately $310,000-$370,000 in 2026 dollars depending on location. Housing and childcare are the two biggest expenses. The figure excludes college, which adds between $100,000 and $300,000 depending on the institution, and it assumes a middle-income two-parent household rather than any particular family.
What is the most expensive age to raise a child?
Ages 0-2 (infant childcare at $12,000-$22,000/year) and ages 15-17 (activities, driving, college prep) are typically the most expensive periods. The dip in between, roughly ages 5 to 12, is when school replaces paid childcare and is the window most families use to rebuild savings.
What are the biggest expenses by category?
Housing comes first at roughly 26 to 30 per cent of the total, because families buy space rather than a nursery. Childcare and education follow at around 16 per cent, concentrated in the first five years. Food takes 18 per cent and rises with age, transport 14 per cent, healthcare 9 per cent, clothing and everything else the remainder. The order is stable across income levels; the amounts are not.
Does a second child cost the same as the first?
No, and the difference is large. Marginal costs for a second child run roughly 60 to 75 per cent of the first, because housing is already paid for, clothing and equipment are reused, and some childcare providers discount siblings. The exception is childcare for two children under three at once, which is the single most expensive period most families face and often exceeds a full salary.
How much should I budget in the first year?
Between $12,000 and $20,000 in the United States excluding childcare, and considerably more with it. The one-off items, cot, pushchair, car seat, total $1,500 to $3,000 and are where second-hand buying saves most. The recurring items, nappies at $70 to $80 a month, formula at $55 to $250, are where the money actually goes over twelve months.
Do these figures include university?
No. The commonly quoted totals cover birth to 18 and stop there. University adds between $100,000 and $300,000 in the United States depending on the institution and whether the student lives at home, and considerably less in the United Kingdom where tuition is capped and repaid as a graduate contribution. Planning the two separately avoids conflating a predictable cost with an optional one.