Child Cost Calculator
This calculator requires the use of Javascript enabled and capable browsers. This script creates a valid assessment of how much expense is involved to raise a child to age 18. Our default values are based conceptually on the U.S. Department of Agriculture annual report "The Cost of Raising a Child," Release No. 0138.00, dated April of 2000. We first wrote this in 1994 and have updated the information and have included other essential factors, the latest revision being June 2004. Education is factored only through high school. Our expenses and values are for an "average", average family of three. Having more than one child is only slightly reduced on some value factors, and increased actually on others.
To use our calculator, you may accept the defaults, based on a middle income USA family, or fill in your own annual values or change the beginning and ending years. Then click on Calculate. You may change any values and recalculate as often as you wish. Low income families actual costs paid by the family is about 60 percent less, though the actual cost is only about 30 percent less. High income families actual costs are about 50 percent higher, though they often spend as much as 200 percent more.
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