The average annual cost of raising a child younger than 5 in the United States came to $27,743 in 2025, SmartAsset reported this week.
The cost of additional housing, food, transportation, health care and miscellaneous items and child care for a working couple rose by 4.5% year over year, outpacing the 2.8% inflation rate during the same period.
SmartAsset noted that costs vary by as much as tens of thousands of dollars depending on the state a family calls home. Some states saw huge swings in the cost of raising a child over just one year.
To find the estimated additional annual income needed by two working adults to support a child younger than 5, researchers used MIT Living Wage Calculator data as of February 2025, which they compared with data from February 2024. Costs comprise additions for food, housing, child care, health care, transportation and other necessities.
The analysis showed that child-raising costs topped $40,000 in the two most expensive states, while they dipped below $20,000 in one state and hovered around that figure in four others.
And whereas some states recorded double-digit percentage increases, parents in 10 states actually saw their costs go down, from a few dollars to more than $8,000.
See the accompanying gallery for the 12 states with the highest costs for raising a young child.
© Touchpoint Markets, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.