The experience of being a parent may be priceless. But the reality is there’s a price tag on raising a child, and it’s up in the hundreds of thousands.
The average cost of raising a child over the course of 18 years in the U.S. has reached $303,418, according to a new study from LendingTree.
The total cost varies widely by state. Hawaii is the most expensive state to raise a child, with LendingTree projecting a price tag of $412,661. Alaska and Maryland follow behind with $365,047 and $326,360, respectively. Meanwhile, New Hampshire is the cheapest state to raise a child, costing $201,963, less than half the price of Hawaii. Washington, D.C.—which offers free preschool for three- and four-year-olds—and South Carolina come in second and third place for the least expensive places to raise a child.
The cost of raising a child is up 1.9% from a year ago due to significant increases to rent and clothing costs. LendingTree found that the average rent has spiked from $1,128 from their last survey in 2025 to $1,680 this year, a nearly 50% increase. Clothing costs were up by more than 25% from a year ago.
“Inflation is just taking a toll, clearly, on people, and it’s certainly one of the reasons why we saw such significant growth here,” Matt Schulz, chief consumer finance analyst at LendingTree, who authored the study, told Fortune.
In some states, the costs associated with raising a child are increasing much faster than the rate of inflation. The study found that Kansas and Alaska’s projected 18-year child-rearing costs jumped 23.5% between LendingTree’s 2025 and 2026 analyses, and Montana increased by 21.7%.
Childcare is the most expensive child-rearing cost
Childcare costs are by far the highest expense for families with children under 5, according to LendingTree’s analysis. Parents in Hawaii pay an average of $40,342 per year, whereas families in Maryland and Massachusetts pay $36,419 and $34,247, respectively.
Fourteen states saw the cost of raising a small child increase by at least 10%. Sparsely populated states such as Nebraska, Montana, and Wisconsin all saw early childrearing cost jump by at least 23% due to the lack of options and high demand.
“A few states and even areas within various states are what are called ‘childcare deserts,” where there’s just not nearly enough supply of daycare and child care centers to keep up with the demand for it,” Schulz explained. “So what happens is that the ones that are there—and especially the really good ones that are there—can charge basically whatever they want to charge, and it ends up driving up the rates quite a bit.”
Childcare is affordable if it consumes no more than 7% of household income, according to federal guidelines. With childcare costs averaging $28,190 a year, a household would have to earn $402,708 for it to be considered affordable, but the average two-child household has an average income of $145,656, just over one-third of that target.
A February survey from the National Association for the Education of Young Children found 65% of childcare centers and 51% of public-school-based programs reported tuition increases. Nearly a third of home-based childcare providers raised tuition.
“It’s a real challenge for people who really need the help,” Schulz said. “As much as we wish that people had a relative or a trusted friend that they could lean on for that sort of thing, a lot of people just don’t have that choice, so they have no other choice but to pay whatever they need to for daycare.”
The long-term consequences of childcare costs
High childcare costs are detrimental to long-term savings like building an emergency fund or putting money away for college or retirement, Schulz said.
“It just turns a really challenging situation into an almost unmanageable one for people, and that’s why we see so many people factoring in finances when it comes to deciding whether to start a family or how many kids they might have.”
For some families, it’s the choice between a parent working or paying for childcare.
“As much as we wish that we didn’t have to to think about the cost of being a parent, you’re doing yourself and your family a bit of a disservice if you don’t, because there are very, very few among us who, for for whom the cost of raising a child is not significant,” Schulz said.
