Cost of Raising a Child Calculator
Your child, your household, and the years still to run
Your result will appear here
Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Planning estimate only. Enter complete, current figures and keep an appropriate buffer for irregular or unexpected expenses.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Enter your child's age now — 0 for a baby on the way or in their first year. The age picks which of USDA's six published bands applies, and the cost rises with the child: the 15-to-17 band is the most expensive one in every income tercile.
- 02
Enter your household income before tax. This is the biggest single lever on the page — USDA published a separate table for each of three income terciles, and birth-to-18 runs $174,690 in the lower one against $372,210 in the higher.
- 03
Enter how many children are in the family, this one included. USDA measured the younger child in a TWO-child family, so an only child costs 127% of that baseline and each child in a family of three or more costs 76%.
- 04
Add your one-off setup for the first year — crib, car seat, stroller and the birth itself. USDA excludes every bit of that, along with prenatal care, adoption and anything after the eighteenth birthday.
- 05
Add your monthly surplus to see what share of it the child takes, and set the inflation field if you want the 2015 dollars carried forward. Leave it at 0 and you are reading exactly what USDA measured; the schedule below prints all eighteen cells so you can see both the older child and the other income columns.
Formula
Pick the income tercile from household income against USDA's two 2015 thresholds ($59,200 and $107,400). Pick the age band from the child's age (0–2, 3–5, 6–8, 9–11, 12–14, 15–17). Apply the family-size multiplier: 127% for an only child, 100% for two children, 76% each for three or more. Then sum the band figure for every year from the child's current age through 17, and add the first-year setup. With an inflation rate set, each year's figure is compounded forward by (years the 2015 dollars are behind today + years from now); at 0 the sum is the raw 2015 total. Monthly average = total ÷ (years remaining × 12).
Example
A two-year-old, $95,000 of household income, two children in the family, $4,000 of first-year setup, inflation left at 0. $95,000 lands in the middle tercile and two children means no multiplier, so the age-2 figure is USDA's 0–2 middle-income cell: $12,680. Summing every band from age 2 through 17 — $12,680 once, then three years each of $12,730, $12,350, $13,180, $13,030 and $13,900 — gives $208,250 in raw 2015 dollars. Add the $4,000 of setup and the total is $212,250, an average of $1,105 a month across the sixteen years left, which is 61% of an $1,800 monthly surplus. The first year from here is $16,680. Inside the total sits about $2,113 a year of child care and education — which is why a household paying $15,728 for full-time infant care is nothing like the average it is being compared with.
Definitions
- Income tercile
- USDA split families into thirds by 2015 before-tax income and published a separate cost table for each: under $59,200, $59,200 to $107,400, and above. The thresholds are 2015 dollars, not today's.
- Age band
- One of six three-year blocks USDA published costs for. They are point estimates, not a curve — nothing here interpolates between them, because USDA published nothing to interpolate.
- Family-size multiplier
- USDA's published adjustment off its two-child baseline: 1.27 for an only child, 0.76 for each child in a family of three or more.
- 2015 dollars
- The purchasing power of the year the survey measured. A figure in 2015 dollars is not wrong — it is a constant-dollar measurement, and mixing it with a nominal projection is what produces the numbers that do not agree.
- Constant-dollar vs nominal
- A constant-dollar total holds purchasing power fixed at one year. A nominal total adds up dollars from many years as though they were the same. The two cannot be compared, which is the whole trouble with the $310,605 figure.
Good to know
The last time anybody measured this
There is exactly one federal measurement of what raising a child costs in the United States, and it stopped. The USDA's Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015 — Miscellaneous Publication 1528-2015, by Lino and colleagues — was published in January 2017, revised that March, and never produced again. It drew on 2011-15 Consumer Expenditure Survey microdata and every figure in it is expressed in 2015 dollars. No successor exists, no replacement has been announced, and no other federal agency has picked up the question. That is an unusual position for a statistic quoted as often as this one, and it means every current-sounding figure you meet is one of three things: this table relabelled, this table adjusted by somebody, or a projection. The headline is $233,610 from birth through 17 for a middle-income married-couple family. The two neighbours matter as much: $174,690 for the lower income tercile and $372,210 for the higher one. That is a spread of nearly $200,000 on the same question, which is why this page refuses to answer until it knows your income, and why any single national figure for the cost of a child is close to meaningless on its own. Three things also sit outside the number entirely because USDA did not measure them — prenatal care and childbirth, adoption, and college — along with everything after the eighteenth birthday.
Why it is in 2015 dollars, and why the page leaves it there
The obvious thing to do with an eleven-year-old survey is to inflate it and print today's number. This page deliberately does not, and the reason is worth understanding because it is the same reason the competing figures disagree. A constant-dollar total holds purchasing power fixed at one year: $233,610 is what a middle-income family's eighteen years of spending would have cost if every year were priced at 2015. A nominal total adds up dollars from many different years as though they were the same thing. The two are not comparable, and the most-quoted alternative figure mixes them. Brookings published $310,605 in August 2022 and it is widely cited as the updated number. It is not a new survey and not a new measurement — it is a re-projection of USDA's own forward estimate with 4% annual inflation substituted for USDA's 2.2%, producing a nominal sum spanning 2015 to 2032. It is a perfectly reasonable projection and an unreasonable comparison, because it answers a different question in a different unit. So this page reports what was measured and puts the inflation rate in a field you control, opening at zero. Set it and the base is carried forward from 2015 to today first, then each future year on top; leave it and you are reading the survey. Doing the adjustment where you can see it is the difference between an estimate and a claim.
The shape of the cost, and the three levers on it
The most useful thing in the USDA table is not the total but its shape. Costs rise with the child rather than falling: the 15-to-17 band is the most expensive in every tercile, and the gap widens as income rises — $9,980 a year for a lower-income teenager against $23,380 for a higher-income one, against a first-three-years figure of $9,690 and $19,770. So the reflex that a baby is the expensive part is backwards; a baby is the noisy part. Second, housing is the largest component everywhere, at roughly a third of the total, followed by food and transportation. Child care and education is 16.3% for the middle tercile and 23.3% for the higher one, which is where the two income columns most visibly diverge. Third, and least intuitive, is family size. USDA measured the younger child in a two-child family and published adjustments off that baseline: an only child costs 127% of it, and each child in a family of three or more costs 76%. A third child does not add a third child's worth of cost because housing rarely means a third bedroom, transport is already paid for, and durable goods are handed down. All three of those levers — the age band, the income tercile, the family-size multiplier — are numeric, which is why this page can key a genuine lookup on them instead of printing one national average and hoping.
The childcare overlap, and the region this page cannot see
Two boundaries worth being explicit about, because both are places where a careless reading double-counts or misleads. The first is childcare. USDA's child-care-and-education component is inside the total already — about $2,113 a year for the middle tercile, averaged across all eighteen years including the many years with no childcare at all. That average is nothing like a daycare bill: full-time center-based infant care runs about $15,728 a year on its own, roughly seven times the averaged allowance. So a household paying for full-time infant care is dramatically above its own tercile for the pre-school years and below it later, and adding a daycare figure on top of the USDA total would count the allowance twice. The childcare page prices that bill properly, net of the two tax breaks that apply to it, and this page hands it over rather than guessing. The second boundary is geography. USDA published the table by region — urban Northeast, Midwest, South and West, plus rural — and the spread is real, driven almost entirely by housing. But a region is a categorical key and this engine has numeric fields only, so this page uses the national figures and says so. Read the total as a floor if you live in an expensive metro and as a ceiling if you do not, and remember that the income tercile is doing some of that work already, since expensive metros pay more.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to raise a child in the US?
The last federal measurement is the USDA's Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015: $233,610 birth through 17 for a middle-income married-couple family, $174,690 for the lower income tercile and $372,210 for the higher one. Those are 2015 dollars. The report was published in January 2017, revised that March, and never updated — there is no successor and none is scheduled, so any figure presented as a current federal number is either that table relabelled or somebody's projection.
Why does the page show 2015 dollars instead of today's?
Because that is what was measured, and quietly aging an eleven-year-old survey into today's money would present an adjustment as a finding. The inflation field is there so you can do it yourself and see it happen: set it and both the base and the future years are carried forward, leave it at 0 and you read the raw table. Doing it in the open is the difference between an estimate and a claim.
Isn't the real figure $310,605?
That is the Brookings figure from August 2022, and it is not a new survey. It is a re-projection of USDA's own forward estimate with 4% annual inflation substituted for USDA's 2.2%, producing a nominal sum that runs from 2015 to 2032 — so it mixes 2015 and 2032 purchasing power in one number, which $233,610 does not. It is a legitimate projection and an illegitimate comparison. This page reports the measurement and exposes the adjustment.
Does this include daycare?
Partly, and that is worth being careful about. Child care and education is one of USDA's seven components — $38,040 across eighteen years for the middle tercile, about $2,113 a year averaged out. That is an average across all ages, including years with no childcare at all. Full-time center-based infant care runs about $15,728 a year on its own, so a household paying it is far above the average for the pre-school years. Do not add a daycare figure on top of the total here or you will count the allowance twice; the childcare page prices the real bill.
Why does a third child cost less than the first?
Economies of scale, and USDA measured them. Housing is the largest component at roughly 29% of a child's cost, and a third child rarely means a third bedroom. Transport, a good deal of food, and almost all durable goods are shared or handed down. So USDA publishes 127% for an only child and 76% for each child in a family of three or more, both against its two-child baseline. Both are editable fields here.
What is not in the number?
Four things USDA did not measure: prenatal care and childbirth, adoption costs, college, and anything at all after the child turns 18. The first-year setup field is where the birth and the gear go. College is the big omission and it is a separate calculation entirely.
Does where I live change it?
Substantially, and almost entirely through housing. USDA published the table by region — urban Northeast, Midwest, South and West, plus rural — but a region cannot be a numeric field, so this page uses the national figures. Read the total as a floor in an expensive metro and as a ceiling in a rural area.