Did Boomer Parents Really Have It Easier? The Cost of Raising a Child Isn't What You Think

Once inflation is counted, raising a child cost boomer parents almost exactly what it costs American parents today, federal figures show.

In 1980, when the oldest baby boomers were in their mid-30s, the US Department of Agriculture put the cost of raising a child to 18, excluding college, at about $65,000 (£48,600) in 1978 dollars. Adjusted with the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index, that equals about $321,000 (£240,100) in 2025 dollars. The figure most widely cited today, from the financial services company Northwestern Mutual, is $320,661 (£239,900) for the same 18 years.

Parents describe it differently. In a BMO survey published in August, 82 per cent of US parents said the cost of raising kids had 'gotten out of control.'

The 1980 Fight Over the Cost of Raising a Child

That year, Parents magazine estimated that a child born in 1980 would cost about $250,000 (£187,000) to raise to 18, and accused the department of ignoring rising prices.

'Only a government agency could be so apparently oblivious to inflation in this day and age,' the magazine wrote.

The magazine reached its total by assuming 10 per cent annual inflation and adding $61,000 (£45,600) in lost earnings for the parent caring for the child, plus other costs it said the USDA had missed. Without those additions, its estimate was $175,000 (£130,900).

Carolyn Edwards, the USDA economist who compiled the government figures, told The Washington Post that her user's guide stated them in constant 1978 dollars and that 'economists who work for the federal government are acutely aware of inflation.'

Edwards accepted that her figures were conservative. They rested on a 1973 survey of 20,000 to 30,000 families and left out day care and a mother's time.

'When the data was collected, the presence of two-earner households was not a major social issue, and the designers of the questionnaire didn't identify it as such,' she said.

What Changed Between the Generations

Northwestern Mutual's $320,661 figure is the USDA's last published estimate, $233,610 (£174,800) for a middle-income married couple raising a child born in 2015, adjusted to April 2025 prices. Unlike the 1980 figure, the 2015 estimate includes childcare and education for families who pay for them. The USDA has not updated the series since January 2017 and says it is reviewing the methods behind it.

The department's longer record covers the boomers' own childhoods. In 1960, a middle-income married couple spent $25,229 (£18,900) on a child, equal to $202,020 (£151,100) in 2015 dollars. By 2015, the real cost was 16 per cent higher.

Childcare and education took 2 per cent of child-rearing spending in 1960 and 16 per cent in 2015. Health care's share more than doubled, while real spending on food and clothing fell. The USDA linked much of the childcare growth to more women working.

In 1975, 47.4 per cent of mothers with children under 18 were in the labour force. By 2025, the figure was 73.9 per cent, according to the BLS.

For families who pay for it, Labor Department data on 2018 prices, in 2022 dollars, put the median annual cost of childcare for one child between $5,357 (£4,000) and $17,171 (£12,800).

Homes have also become more expensive relative to income. In 1985, the median new home sold for $84,300 (£63,100), about 3.6 times the median household income of $23,620 (£17,700), Census Bureau data show. In 2025, the median new home cost $416,600 (£311,700), about 4.8 times the median household income of $87,460 (£65,400).

Grandparents Step In

The BMO survey, carried out by Ipsos among 2,500 US adults between 8 June and 13 July, found that 76 per cent of parents with children under 18 consider financial help from extended family essential. Some 37 per cent of parents with young children expect help from their own parents or grandparents within a year, and 43 per cent of that group said it would come as free childcare or help with its cost.

'Raising kids has always been a labor of love, but right now, it is also a major feat of financial engineering with families torn between spending on the urgent and the important,' said Robin Growley, US head of consumer products at BMO.