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WA ranks 7th-most expensive state to raise a child: Here's the cost

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Published  April 13, 2026 2:08pm PDT
Family
FOX 13 Seattle

The Brief

    • Washington is the seventh-most expensive state to raise a child, with the "bare-bones" cost of raising one until age 18 totaling $297,341.
    • While the total cost has decreased 6.7% since 2025 due to a slight dip in daycare prices, most other household expenses like rent and food have seen double-digit percentage increases since 2023.
    • The study highlights a significant financial squeeze for parents, as rising essential costs and a 38.9% decrease in federal tax credit values outpace a 26.4% drop in transportation expenses.

SEATTLE - Raising a child is no small feat, but according to a new study, Washington is among the most expensive states in the U.S. to do so.

A new report from online lending marketplace LendingTree finds the Evergreen State is the seventh-most expensive state to raise a child.

The cost to raise a child in WA

By the numbers:

According to the study, the total cost of raising a child to age 18 reaches $297,341. However, analysts with LendingTree note this is a 6.7% decrease from 2025, when that cost was $318,714.

The study's methodology factors in several categories into the equation — which analysts note are only the "bare-bones costs" — including rent, food, day care, girls' apparel, transportation, insurance premiums, federal tax credit values, and average costs based on the child's age.

Nationwide, the cost of the first five years of a child's life has decreased, due to a small drop in daycare costs. Virtually everything else has gone up in price.

Big picture view:

LendingTree first began tracking these costs in 2023, and since then, every household expense has increased by at least a double-digit percent.

Rent has increased an average of 52.2%, food has increased 29.3% and infant day care has risen 46.9%, all while the value of federal tax credit has decreased by 38.9%. Transportation costs, however, have dropped by 26.4%.

Importantly, the study's figures do not factor inflation into account, which has fluctuated between 2–6% since 2023.

The most expensive state to raise a child is Hawaii, where the cost of raising a child to age 18 costs $412,661.

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The Source: Information in this story comes from a report from LendingTree, as well as previous coverage from FOX 13 Seattle.

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