Boston Is The Most Expensive City In America To Raise A Child

The ten most expensive cities when considering the annual cost to raise a child in America revealed that Boston's cost is over 50% higher than the national average.

Ameera Hammouda - Staff Writer • September 26, 2024

It’s not New York or LA that are the most expensive cities to raise a kid, but Boston. The annual cost of raising a child in the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro areas proved to be the highest in the country this year, ringing out at $38,000 for one child per year.

There are three main brackets of associated costs—childcare, additional housing, and food, healthcare, and transportation grouped into the third bracket.

Although Boston has the highest overall cost of raising a child, at $38,000 per year, it has the second-highest childcare cost of any U.S. metro at $23,000 per year. Washington D.C. outranked Boston with a cost of $25,000 for childcare per year as the graphic below depicts:

cost of raising child graphic — Visual Capitalist

When it came to the cost of additional housing, Boston tied for third with an average cost of $5,000 per child, synced with Seattle, Washington and San Jose, California. For the third bracket of food, healthcare, transportation and associated costs, Boston tied for the highest with San Francisco and San Jose, California at $10,000 per year.

Considering over 27% of Bostonians earn under $50,000 per year, a cost of $38,000 for raising a child is nearly the salary of some Bostonians. Some argue that the costs are even higher than those portrayed in the study, with childcare alone costing well over the averages presented.

According to the study, published by Visual Capitalist, a visual data storyteller, the costs pertain to the difference between 0 and 1 children. “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 large metro areas,” notes Voronoi.

Similar studies published from SmartAsset also found Massachusetts to be the most expensive state to raise a child, with an average statewide cost of $36,000 per year. Other New England states ranked among the top on that list, Connecticut (3), New Hampshire (7), and Rhode Island (9).

Despite the high costs, Massachusetts ranked as one of the best places to raise a family.