United Kingdom · https://decisionscalc.com/gb/tools/cost-of-raising-a-child-calculator/
Cost of Raising a Child in the UK
A year-by-year estimate from birth to 18: everyday costs for each age band, childcare, an optional housing share, and, if you qualify, the official Child Benefit counted as income. Every default is sourced and dated below, and the result sits next to the most-cited estimate for the UK — it is our model, not an official cost.
Cost to age 18
Where the money goes
Year by year
The most-cited figure for the UK
CPAG Cost of a Child 2025 (Loughborough University Minimum Income Standard, October 2025): £250,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a lone parent, to age 18, including rent and childcare. Status: charity and university research, the de-facto UK benchmark; there is no government figure. It prices a minimum acceptable standard of living, not average spending.
Published figures measure different things: some include housing and childcare, some stop at 17 or run to 21, some price a minimum standard and others average spending, and their prices come from different years. That is why we show it next to your result rather than as "the" cost.
What the defaults are built from
- Everyday costs (food, clothing, activities, transport, health and the rest, excluding housing and childcare): Our estimate based on CPAG's 2025 basic cost of a child for a couple (about £167,700 to 18, excluding rent, childcare and council tax), spread across the age bands. CPAG prices a minimum acceptable standard, so typical spending can be higher.
- Childcare: Coram Childcare Survey 2026: 25 hours a week of nursery for a child under 2 in England averages £188.75 a week (£9,438 a year) with no funded hours; full-time here is our doubling of that. Funded hours for working parents can cover much of this, so enter the share they cover as the subsidy.
- Housing: Our assumption: an extra bedroom's share of rent, taken as 15% of the ONS average UK rent (£1,406 a month, September 2026) per child.
- Child Benefit: Child Benefit is £27.05 a week for the eldest or only child and £17.90 for each additional child (2026/27, gov.uk). The High Income Child Benefit Charge claws it back from £60,000 of adjusted net income, so a higher earner may keep little or none of it.
| Age band | Everyday cost per child per year (our estimate) |
|---|---|
| Ages 0–4 | £7,730 |
| Ages 5–11 | £9,090 |
| Ages 12–17 | £10,910 |
| Ages | Child Benefit, eldest (per year) | Each additional child |
|---|---|---|
| 0–17 | £1,407 | £931 |
How the estimate works
For each year of the child's life the calculator adds the everyday cost for that age band (scaled by the cost level), childcare for the pre-school years you choose, and the housing share if you switch it on, then takes off the Child Benefit for that age. Each year is raised by the inflation rate from today, so the total is in the money of the years it is spent; the line beneath it gives the same total in today's money.
Three simplifications matter. More than one child is modelled side by side, each from birth, with no discount for hand-me-downs or shared rooms. Childcare stops when school starts, so after-school and holiday care are not included. And the benefit is counted at its maximum rate, which income tests reduce or remove for many families.
The levers that move the total
Childcare is the line that swings most: a few years of full-time care at market prices can rival everything else in the first decade, and subsidies or funded hours change it more than any other single choice. After that, the teenage years cost the most in everyday spending. Housing depends on whether a child actually changes where you live — if you already have the room, switch it off.
For the first year in detail, use the baby cost planner; for what comes after 18, the college cost calculator.
Compare two scenarios
Snapshot your current numbers, change any input, then snapshot again to see the difference side by side.
No scenarios saved yet — enter your numbers above, then click Save as A.
| Metric | Scenario A | Scenario B | Difference |
|---|
What changes in the UK
- Child Benefit is universal to claim but not to keep: the High Income Child Benefit Charge recovers it through tax once one parent's adjusted net income passes £60,000. Claiming still protects the non-earning parent's National Insurance record, so it is usually worth claiming even when the charge takes it all back.
- Funded childcare hours in England now reach working parents of children from 9 months old, but they are term-time hours with eligibility rules and providers may charge for meals and extras. The funded share, not the headline price, is what decides the childcare line.
- Scotland and Wales run separate childcare offers and prices differ by nation: Coram's 2026 survey puts the same 25 hours for an under-2 lower in Scotland and Wales than in England.
- The best-known UK figure, CPAG's Cost of a Child, measures what a child adds to a minimum acceptable budget. It is a floor built by Loughborough University researchers with parents, not a measure of what families typically spend.
Data reference (United Kingdom): Everyday costs: our estimate based on CPAG Cost of a Child 2025 basic cost for a couple (~£167,700 to 18 excluding rent, childcare and council tax; to verify against the report). Childcare: Coram Childcare Survey 2026 (25 hours a week, under 2, England, £188.75/wk). Housing: our assumption of 15% of ONS average rent (£1,406/mo, September 2026) per child. Child Benefit £27.05/wk eldest, £17.90/wk each additional (gov.uk, 2026/27) · figures as of 2026-10 · Child Benefit rates checked against gov.uk (pinned in the statutory-figures test, 2026-09-30); the spending bands, childcare and housing lines are our estimate based on the named sources, not individually verified. General information, not advice.. See our methodology for how every figure is sourced and dated.