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Cost of Raising a Child Calculator

What does it cost to raise a child to 18? USDA’s estimates by income and family size, category by category, brought to today’s prices.

Choose your household income and family size to see USDA’s estimate in today’s dollars.

Household income

Middle income: household income before tax about $83,700 to $151,800 a year, in August 2026 dollars.

Children in the family

0 for a newborn or a baby on the way. The total runs from this age through 17.

USDA’s figures are for families who pay for it. Turn off if you will not.

Estimate. A real-world figure based on the assumptions listed below, which you can change.

How this calculator works

The spending figures come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s report Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015, which estimated what families spend on a child each year from birth through age 17, by household income and across seven categories: housing, food, transportation, clothing, health care, child care and education, and everything else. It is the most recent edition USDA has published.

USDA’s figures are in 2015 dollars, so the calculator brings them to today’s prices with the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U, all items), the same index USDA used. At August 2026 prices, everything is multiplied by 1.4133: the latest CPI-U, 334.98, divided by the 2015 average, 237.017. The figure updates every month as new CPI data is published.

USDA’s estimates are for the younger child in a married-couple family with two children. For an only child USDA multiplies by 1.27, and for each child in a family of three or more by 0.76, because families share housing and other costs across children. The calculator applies the same adjustments.

You can count from your child’s current age, to see what is still to come, and leave out child care and education if you will not pay for it. USDA’s child care figures are averages for families who do.

The formula

Exactly what happens to your numbers, step by step.

  1. Total

    Σ (USDA yearly cost for each age) × family-size factor
× (latest CPI-U ÷ 2015 CPI-U)

  2. Family-size factor (USDA)

    one child × 1.27 · two × 1 · three or more × 0.76

A worked example

A newborn in a middle-income, two-child family, at August 2026 prices.

What you enter

Household income
Middle
Children
Two
Child’s age
0

Step by step

USDA, birth through 17
$233,610 in 2015 dollars
To today’s prices
× 1.4133 (CPI-U 334.98 ÷ 237.017)
Largest category
Housing, 28% of the total

About $330,200, or about $18,300 a year

For an only child in the same family, USDA’s 1.27 factor makes it about $419,300. Housing is the biggest cost because it is counted as the extra space a child needs, not a share of the whole home.

Assumptions

Every result here rests on these. Change your inputs and the result changes with them.

  • USDA’s spending patterns from its 2015 survey still describe families today. Prices have changed, which the CPI adjustment handles; habits may have changed too.
  • Each category’s prices rose with prices overall. That will not be exactly true of any one of them.
  • The figures are for married-couple families, across the United States as a whole, and stop at age 17: college is not included.

What this cannot tell you

  • USDA has not published a newer edition than this one, the 2015 estimates released in 2017.
  • Costs vary a great deal by region. USDA found the urban Northeast most expensive and the urban Midwest and rural areas least, but this calculator uses the national figures.
  • It does not count the earnings a parent may give up by working less, which USDA notes is a real cost but does not estimate.

Questions people ask

How much does it cost to raise a child?

USDA estimated $233,610 from birth through age 17 for a middle-income, two-child, married-couple family, in 2015 dollars. At August 2026 prices that is about $330,200. For lower-income families it is about $246,900, and for higher-income families about $526,100.

What is the biggest cost of raising a child?

Housing, at about 28% of the total for a middle-income family, followed by food and then child care and education for families who pay for it. USDA counts housing as the cost of the extra room a child needs.

Does it cost less per child with more children?

Yes, according to USDA: an only child costs about 27% more than the figures for a child in a two-child family, and each child in a family of three or more about 24% less, because housing, transportation and other costs are shared.

Is the USDA estimate still accurate?

It is the most recent federal estimate, but it is based on spending in 2011–2015. This calculator updates the prices with the Consumer Price Index every month, which keeps it in today’s dollars, but it cannot capture changes in what families spend money on.

Related calculators

Sources and review

Sources

Methodology version 1.0.0 · Last reviewed

Cite this calculator

For coursework, a resource list or your own site. How every calculator is built and checked is set out on the methodology page.

Citation

Chalk Calculator. (2026, October 12). Cost of Raising a Child Calculator (Methodology version 1.0.0). https://chalkcalculator.com/cost-of-raising-a-child-calculator/

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