How Inflation Affects the Cost of Raising a Child in 2025
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Cory Dudak
Commitment to Our Readers
GOBankingRates' editorial team is committed to bringing you unbiased reviews and information. We use data-driven methodologies to evaluate financial products and services - our reviews and ratings are not influenced by advertisers. You can read more about our editorial guidelines and our products and services review methodology.
20 Years
Helping You Live Richer
Reviewed
by Experts
Trusted by
Millions of Readers
If you’re considering having a child in 2025, be sure to weigh what you value financially first. As prices rise, kids get more expensive — and even as inflation cools, it means only that prices are rising by less.
Here’s how inflation impacts the cost of raising a child in 2025.
Raising Kids Wasn’t Cheap Even When Inflation Was Low
One of the most definitive analyses on the long-term cost of raising a child came from a USDA report released in 2017. It projected that a child born in 2015 would cost $233,610 to raise through age 17 in 2027.
However, further data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis showed the 2010s were a period of sustained, historically low inflation where the rate stayed under 3% annually for nearly the entire decade. In the post-pandemic era, inflation soared, peaking at 40-year highs — and $233,610 doesn’t go as far as it did 10 years ago.
High-Inflation Periods Might Provide a Better Roadmap
In 2022, at the height of the post-pandemic inflationary period (and seven years after the start of the USDA study’s projection), the Brookings Institution recalculated using similar criteria — food, housing, energy, etc. — but revised its methodology according to the realities of the time.
It based its projections on the 17 years between 1980 and 1997, a period of historically elevated sustained inflation rates, and found the cost of raising a child born in 2022 through age 17 in 2037 would be $310,605.
The Average Child Born in 2025 Will Cost $20K Per Year To Raise
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) inflation calculator, based on the official Consumer Price Index, a parent in 2025 would need $322,427.12 to match the buying power of $233,610 in 2015.
However, the $310,605 from the 2022 Brookings study would be $356,357 in 2025 money. The average of the two numbers — one from a period of low inflation and the other from a period of high inflation — is $339,392 for basic expenses alone. Divided by 17 years, that’s roughly $20,000 per year, per child, excluding higher education and the cost of helping them transition to adulthood (compared to $13,741 per year for a child born in 2015).
More From GOBankingRates
