Lending Tree compiles data on what things costs and they try to track how a child fits into that “need.” Here’s their compilation. The left column is data for Pennsylvania. The right column is a national average.
Housing 2208 1680
Food 1990 4208
Infant Day Care 14910 17264
Transportation 2520 4420
Insurance 2693 3638
The cost “all in” to age 18 now crosses $300,000 based on 2024 national data. Pennsylvania’s stats are just shy of $250,000. It is based on two parents with median household income of $99,000 and a single child supported at what the statisticians call “bare bones” expenditures. The average of $17K in day care is actually closer to $30,000 in the first five (pre-school) years. Then it declines.
It Costs $303,418 to Raise a Child Over 18 Years | LendingTree
The average cost of college today is pegged at just under $40,000 a year.
Average Cost of College [2026]: Yearly Tuition + Expenses
In Pennsylvania you have no obligation to contribute but if you did sign up for your child’s college and provided more than “bare bones” support from birth to high school commencement, an American child today is weighing in at close to half a million dollars. Surely, there may be some economies of scale if you have a second or third child, but they aren’t coming in day car costs or college tuition.
A group called District Media finance has tried to encapsulate what has happened in the past 45 years. It’s an interesting read because a lot of kid expenses we think of today as necessary would have been labeled extravagant or unthinkable (e.g. cell phones, powered bikes) in 1980. But other expenses, like health insurance, day care and college have rocketed past any semblance of normal inflation.