Cost of Raising a Child Calculator
Estimate the yearly and total cost of raising a child to adulthood from your own budget.
About the Cost of Raising a Child Calculator
Enter the child's current age, the age you're planning to, yearly costs for housing, food, childcare and other spending, and an inflation rate. The calculator projects the total cost.
Costs depend enormously on where you live, childcare needs and income. Housing, food and childcare are usually the largest categories. Enter your own yearly figures (or a government estimate for your country) and an inflation rate to project the total.
The formula
Total = Σ yearly cost × (1 + inflation)^years
Worked example
From birth to 18 at 15,000 a year today (housing 4,500, food 3,000, care 4,000, other 3,500)
- Rising 3% a year with inflation
- Total: about 351,217
Questions people ask
Does this include college?
No; use the college savings calculator.
What did the USDA estimate?
Its last report (2017) put a middle-income US family at about $233,600 to age 17 in 2015 dollars.