There are many factors to consider when determining the best place to raise your family. Being near extended family is a bonus, and for many parents, choosing a location where their profession thrives is vital.
Within a general area, you might consider different school districts, access to parks and other amenities, and growing neighborhoods. At the state level, though, there is a clear divide in factors such as the cost of living and how public policies affect your family.
When we look at the most expensive and cheapest states to raise a child, it’s also worth looking at what value families get for that cost. How are the schools? Will my children have access to health care?
Here are the rankings of the 5 most expensive and 5 least expensive states to raise a child from birth to age 18, along with how they match up on these other factors.
#1: Hawaii — The Most Expensive State To Raise A Child
The average cost of raising a child from birth to age 18, according to Lending Tree, is now $303,418. In Hawaii, where the economy relies heavily on tourism, it’s much higher. Currently, projections indicate that raising a child to age 18 in Hawaii will cost about $412,661.
The cost per year for the first five years of child-rearing has, on average, dropped to about $29,325 annually. It’s a cost-intensive time, thanks to childcare and other expenses. However, Hawaii is an exception to this drop. Here, having a child under the age of five is projected to cost about $40,342 annually.
How does Hawaii rank in other characteristics important for raising a family? For children’s health, it falls firmly in the middle of U.S. states. Forbes ranks it #21, with a score of 63.84, based on a metric that includes access, disease, and risk factor prevalence, and lifestyle. In terms of education, Consumer Affairs ranked Hawaii 28th in education last year, using a system that factors in K-12 performance, higher education, school safety, and education spending.
#2: Alaska — Costs Well Above Average
Alaska can be expensive, largely because it’s remote, which complicates transportation and access to necessities. The estimated $365,047 cost to raise a child to age 18 in Alaska is more than $60k above the average, or about an extra $3.3k per year.
The same factors that make Alaska more expensive can also complicate access to health care and education. Forbes currently ranks it 34th in children’s health, with a score of 43.67%, noting that more than 1 in 20 kids cannot access needed healthcare. Worse, the Consumer Affairs education ranking places Alaska 49th out of 50 in 2025, a huge fall from its position at 27 in 2024, largely due to schools that are unsafe or falling apart and a failure to fund their repair.
#3: Maryland — Education & Healthcare Are Valued
Maryland is the first state where we find that education and healthcare are elevated, along with costs. Lending Tree finds that raising a child for 18 years in Maryland will cost about $326,360. It’s more than the national average, but by less than $1,300 per year.
The balance is that Maryland is ranked second on Forbes‘ child health charts, with a score of 97%. It earned this ranking by having the third-highest rate of vaccinated kids, the second-lowest rate of child tooth decay, and one of the lowest percentages of youth who needed but couldn’t access mental health care.
It also ranks well for education, landing at number 9 on the Consumer Affairs chart — up from number 12 the previous year.
#4: California — Mixed Bag Of Scores
California ranks fourth-highest in projected child-rearing costs, though it’s only slightly above the national average, with an estimated 18-year cost of $312,300. The national average, recall, is $303,418, so that’s about an extra $500 per year to raise a child in California.
California falls below the midline for children’s health, ranked 28th with a score of 51.34%, and only 87.9% of kids in the state are considered to be in good health.
The state ranks a bit better in education, jumping up into the top ten last year. It’s now ranked 8th in the U.S., up from 32nd in 2024.
#5: New Jersey — One Of The Best Balances Of Cost To Care
Okay, New Jersey is the fifth most expensive state to raise a child to adulthood, with an estimated cost only $5 below California over 18 years. However, it’s also the last state on the list to be above the national average, at $312,295. (Again, that means a parent in New Jersey spends an average of about $500 per year more than the national average to get a kid from birth to adulthood.)
New Jersey, however, provides the bang for the buck.
It ranks #12 in children’s health, with a score of 72%. Remember, that’s based on 3 criteria according to Forbes: access to care, disease and risk factor prevalence, and lifestyle habits. 90.4% of kids are deemed to be in good or excellent health, and only 3.1% report being unable to access needed healthcare.
New Jersey also makes the grade in education, ranking number 4 overall in 2025. While being in the top five is great anyway, it’s also ranked the top state for school safety, which is another plus.
#46: Iowa — Another Mixed Bag
Raising a child from birth to nominal adulthood in Iowa will cost almost $100k less than the national average. Lending Tree‘s projections suggest the average parent in the state can expect to spend $215,443 per child. That’s a savings of nearly $5k per year.
Whether it balances out will be a decision for each family. Iowa isn’t too shabby when it comes to children’s health. Forbes ranked it #7, with a score of 82.27%. A few important factors here are that Iowa had the second-lowest number of kids who reported zero days a week of physical activity and fell within the lowest quadrant for both kids unable to obtain needed medical care and kids unable to obtain needed mental health care.
Education is also a mixed bag. Consumer Affairs ranked Iowa #26, but terrible safety rankings (45th out of 50) and low funding (35th out of 50) pulled that score down. Despite this, it ranked 6th in K12 performance.
47: Alabama — Low Costs, But Healthcare & Education Suffer
The projected cost to raise a child to age 18 in Alabama is $212,121, more than $5k per year cheaper than the national average. It’s also one of the cheapest states to have a child under age 5, thanks to lower childcare costs. The estimated annual cost of raising an under-5 in Alabama is $18,019 — less than half of what it costs in the most expensive states, and about 2/3 of the national average ($29,325).
That said, there are trade-offs for a low cost of living. Forbes rates Alabama 31st in child health, and at 66.8%, it has one of the highest rates of youth who had major mental health incidents and were unable to receive needed care.
Alabama was ranked 43rd in education, a gain from 2024, when it was ranked 50th. However, it earns that low score by ranking poorly in all four metrics considered: 36th in K12 performance; 39th in school funding; 33rd in higher education, and 46th in school safety.
#48: Mississippi — Low Costs But Concerning Outcomes
Mississippi is a fractionally cheaper state in which to raise a child than Alabama, but rates far lower in child health and only a bit better in education. Here, it is projected to cost $208,621 over the course of childhood, with the lowest per-year cost for under-fives at $17,148 on average.
Unfortunately, Forbes ranks Mississippi #50 out of 50 states for child health, giving it a score of 1.81%. It has the second-highest percentage of kids who had a major depressive episode and didn’t receive mental health care (71.7%); and had its low ranks affirmed by large numbers of low-birth-weight babies (12.7%) and high rates of overweight or obese adolescents (42.4%).
Mississippi isn’t balancing this out in the education department, where Consumer Affairs ranks it 29th (a notable improvement from #39 the previous year). The state ranks 19th for K12 performance and 37th in school funding.
#49: South Carolina — Another Match Of Costs & Benefits
South Carolina is the second-cheapest state (the third-cheapest location ranked, when including the District of Columbia) to raise a child. The projected costs to take your bundle of joy all the way to voting age is $204,213.
Here, too, one can expect health and education benefits to match the expenditure pretty closely, unfortunately.
South Carolina ranked #32 on the child health charts, with an overall score of 43.88%. That’s made up of three poor ratings: an Access to Care score of 50.26%, a Disease & Risk Prevalence score of 56.46%, and a Lifestyle Habits score of 32.46%. Altogether, these factors consider aspects of health such as the number of kids with cavities and tooth decay, the percentage of kids who can’t access care for physical or mental health needs, and the percentage of kids who are overweight or don’t get enough physical activity.
The state ranks #42 in education, down from #38 in 2024. Individual metrics are consistently low: #43 for K12 performance, #30 for school funding, and #49 for school safety. The only education metric in which South Carolina rates somewhat better is higher education, in which it’s ranked 14th in the nation.
Special Mention: District Of Columbia
While DC isn’t a state, it’s often included separately in these rankings. Surprisingly, it’s one of the cheapest places to raise a child to age 18, with a projected cost of $202,115.
It also ranks relatively high in child health, coming in at number 10. It has one of the highest Access To Care scores possible: 97.35% (outdone only by Massachusetts and New Hampshire) and ranks 4th-best in Disease & Risk Prevalence, but falls a bit lower for Lifestyle Habits.
Consumer Reports did not include DC in its rankings last year, but a WalletHub ranking (with slightly different criteria) placed it at #24, citing high dropout rates and low math scores.
#50: New Hampshire — Overall Good Value
New Hampshire is the cheapest state in the U.S. to raise a child to age 18, according to Lending Tree‘s predictions. It’s the only state where the cost is (albeit slightly) more than $100k below the national average, at a projected $201,963.
The state has more than child-raising costs in its favor. It’s also one of the top states for child health, ranking #3 on the Forbes chart. That factors in that it’s the second-best for access to care and has the third-highest percentage of kids with health coverage (97.5%). It also ranks well for the percentage of kids who are overweight or obese (21.9%), babies with low birth weight (6.7%), and kids who don’t get enough sleep at night (25.9%).
In terms of education, New Hampshire’s overall rank on the Consumer Reports chart fell from 16 in 2024 to 22 in 2025, which is alarming until you see how it breaks down. The state ranked #50 for higher education, and #42 for school safety, but much higher, #11, for school funding, and near the top, #2 in the nation, for K12 performance.
