Ranked: The Most Expensive U.S. Metro Areas to Raise a Child

Visual Capitalist ^ | 06/28/2024 | Bruno Venditti

[SeekAndFind]

Raising a child can be expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of dollars from birth through to adulthood.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist's Bruno Venditti, shows the 10 most expensive metro areas to raise a child in, among the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas. Costs include food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation, and other necessities.

All figures are as of February 2024. Data is from SmartAsset.

Methodology: SmartAsset used MIT Living Wage Calculator data to compare the living costs of a household with two working adults and one child to that of a childless household with two working adults in extensive metro areas.

Boston Tops the List

Raising a child in a large U.S. metro area costs an average of $25,181 per year.

The Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA, area is the most expensive, at $37,758 annually. Childcare costs $22,806 annually, and additional housing needs cost $5,425.

The San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley metro area comes in second, with an annual cost of $35,642 per child. Washington, DC, ranks third with an average cost of $35,554. Washington also leads the country in childcare costs alone at $24,886 annually.

Additional housing costs are higher in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad area, amounting to $7,056 annually. Meanwhile, the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara area tops the list for food, healthcare, and transportation costs.

If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out Ranked: The Most Valuable Housing Markets in America.

[TheWriterTX]

When my kids came along, I started working part-time from 9 to 3 pm Monday to Friday.

My husband worked 2nd shift from 4 to midnight Tuesday to Saturday.

We had one day together a week.

It was a miracle we had 3 kids. On the flip side, we didn’t have time to fight.

When my kids were old enough to all be in school, we flipped. I dropped them off for my 9 to 5 and he did the 6 am to 3 pm shift to pick them up.

With the exception of a 3 month stint, my children were never in a daycare. We had private sitters occasionally but otherwise it was us.

It can be done.

[Señor Presidente]

I don’t live in a metro area, and I know costs are real, etc...

But I routinely see these types of stories and think they are just part of the militant cultural war against children and families. i.e. Meant to further discourage couples from having children.

I have 6. Doesn’t make me better. I wouldn’t trade a dollar for any moment with any of them. Much of what it “takes” financially to raise children can be managed with thrift, waiting, hard work, etc.

The idea that you have to achieve some elusive level of financial security to have & provide for them is, IMO, a lie.

To the broader point, though, children are more expensive to raise than they should otherwise be— metro area or elsewhere. All thanks to the ruinous policies of the federal and state governments.