United States · https://decisionscalc.com/tools/cost-of-raising-a-child-calculator/
Cost of Raising a Child in the US
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 Tax Credit counted as income. Every default is sourced and dated below, and the result sits next to the most-cited estimate for the US — 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 US
USDA Expenditures on Children by Families (released 2017): $233,610 to age 17 for a middle-income two-parent family, in 2015 dollars. Status: official, but never updated since; it is not in today's dollars. Brookings' inflation-adjusted version ($310,605) is to verify.
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 USDA's Expenditures on Children by Families ($233,610 to age 17, middle-income two-parent family) after removing our housing and childcare defaults. USDA's figure is in 2015 dollars and has not been updated, so this understates today's prices. Because the bands are calibrated to it, the default scenario lands on USDA's total by construction — the match is not an independent check.
- Childcare: Default is the median full-time center-based infant care price across states in our baby-cost data (EPI Child Care Cost Index 2023). Prices vary several-fold by state; enter your own quote.
- Housing: Our assumption: an extra bedroom's share of rent, taken as 15% of the Zillow typical US rent ($1,932 a month, September 2026) per child.
- Child Tax Credit: The Child Tax Credit is up to $2,200 per qualifying child under 17 for 2026, of which up to $1,700 is refundable (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32). It phases out at higher incomes, and a family with little tax liability may receive only the refundable part.
| Age band | Everyday cost per child per year (our estimate) |
|---|---|
| Ages 0–4 | $7,130 |
| Ages 5–11 | $8,390 |
| Ages 12–17 | $10,070 |
| Ages | Child Tax Credit, eldest (per year) | Each additional child |
|---|---|---|
| 0–16 | $2,200 | $2,200 |
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 Tax Credit 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.
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| Metric | Scenario A | Scenario B | Difference |
|---|
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to raise a child to 18?
Which age costs the most?
Does the Child Tax Credit cover much of the cost?
Why is my result different from figures in the news?
What changes in the US
- There is no current official cost-of-a-child figure: the USDA series stopped with its 2017 report, so every recent headline is either an inflated version of it or a commercial estimate built on different assumptions.
- The Child Tax Credit is claimed on the tax return rather than paid monthly, and only part of it is refundable, so a family with low tax liability receives less than the headline amount per child.
- Childcare is priced by the market with no universal subsidy, and center-based infant care can cost more than in-state college tuition in many states. A Dependent Care FSA lets you pay some of it from pre-tax pay.
- Health costs for a child depend on the parents' plan: adding a dependant changes the premium and the deductible, which is why the everyday line here can differ widely from your own.
Data reference (United States): Everyday costs: our estimate based on USDA Expenditures on Children by Families ($233,610 to age 17, 2015 dollars, released 2017). Childcare: median state full-time infant care in our baby-cost data (EPI Child Care Cost Index 2023; to verify against the DOL Women's Bureau National Database of Childcare Prices). Housing: our assumption of 15% of Zillow typical rent ($1,932/mo, September 2026) per child. Child Tax Credit $2,200 per child, $1,700 refundable (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32, 2026) · figures as of 2026-10 · Child Tax Credit checked against the IRS source (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.