Rising Cost of Raising a Child in U.S. States

LendingTree’s April 2026 study finds the cost to raise a child to age 18 is $303,418, a 1.9% annual rise and a 27.8% increase over three years. State costs range from $40,342 per year in Hawaii to $17,148 in Mississippi, with Maryland ($36,419) and Massachusetts ($34,247) among the highest.

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Child Care Aware of America has tracked childcare costs since 2000, noting a rise with 70-80% of expenses tied to staff wages. LendingTree’s calculations combine data from the Census American Community Survey, BLS expenditure surveys, Child Care Aware’s Price of Care report, IRS records, sources.

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Fifty states and Washington, D.C. are ranked on a 1-to-51 scale (1 = most expensive). Alaska, Kansas, Montana >20% jumps; California 4th, New York 8th, Florida 27th, Texas 45th. Hawaii tops the list; Mississippi, Alabama and South Dakota rank at the bottom. In 45 states and D.C., childcare for two children exceeds median mortgage payment.

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Families allocate 21.9% of income to child-rearing, down from 22.6% a year earlier. Total cost now equals median U.S. home price of $356,000. A February 2026 CBS News poll finds 77% that raising a family is harder today than in prior generations.

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Sandra Bishop, director of research at Child Care Aware of America, said childcare costs often exceed mortgage payments and are driven largely by staff wages. Matt Schulz, LendingTree’s consumer finance analyst, warned the new estimate places a “tremendous strain” on household budgets. Both urge policy action.

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Critics argue the cost of raising a child now rivals major purchases, creating a burden for middle-income families. The CBS News poll underscores that financial barriers deter couples from having children, fueling a shift toward pet ownership.

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The study shows a 0.3% dip in first-five-year expenses, from $29,419 to $29,325, while costs rise. No income-tier breakdown is provided, limiting insight into how expenses affect households and obscuring drivers of recent cost shifts.

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• “If you have two kids, what you pay for childcare on average exceeds [your] mortgage.” — Sandra Bishop, Senior Director of Research, Child Care Aware of America

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• “The newly revealed cost of raising a child puts tremendous strain on Americans' budgets.” — Matt Schulz, Consumer Finance Analyst, LendingTree

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• “Over 77% of people believe that it is harder to raise a family today than it was for previous generations.” — CBS News poll, February 2026

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• “The overall cost of raising a child would now be equal to the median sales price of a home in the U.S., around $356,000.” — Zillow Home Value Index

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LendingTree advises families to start saving early, use government debt-reduction programs, and evaluate childcare options critically. Ongoing monitoring of state-level price changes will inform policy discussions aimed at lowering the financial barrier to parenthood.

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