Here's how much it costs to raise a child in California in 2026

Watch: Trump's answer on fixing child care crisis

At an Economic Club of New York forum, Donald Trump was asked what he would do about the child care crisis. Economists and activists later called his answer an "incoherent word salad" and "incomprehensible at best.'

New data reveals that the cost of raising a child over 18 years is up again —now topping $300,000 for the first time since the company began tracking it. 

LendingTree ​​researchers used various data sources to calculate the average annual costs associated with raising a small child in a two-earner household in each state and the District of Columbia.

Their calculations incorporated expenses for rent, food, infant day care, apparel, transportation and health insurance premiums. Dependent tax benefits — whether exemptions or credits — were also subtracted from expenses to create the average annual cost to raise a child by state. 

Raising a child now costs more than 300K

By the numbers:

According to the data, the average 18-year cost of raising a child grew to $303,418 after tax exemptions and credits.

That’s an average of $16,857 annually over 18 years, up 1.9% from a year ago. 

Despite this, annual costs in the first five years decreased slightly from $29,419 to $29,325 (or 0.3%), driven primarily by a dip in day care costs.

Hawaii is most expensive state to raise child

Dig deeper:

The analysis found that Hawaii was the most expensive state to raise a small child, with annual costs for the first five years reaching $40,342. 

Maryland and Massachusetts followed at $36,419 and $34,247, and California ranked fourth at $33,692 per year. 

Conversely, annual costs were lowest in Mississippi ($17,148), Alabama ($18,019) and South Dakota ($18,622). All three states had infant day care costs below $10,000 annually, helping them rank among the cheapest states to raise a small child.

Fourteen states saw the annual cost of raising a small child rise at least 10.0%, including four with growth of 20.0% or more. Annual costs rose in 39 states and the District of Columbia. Nebraska (27.4%), Montana (24.5%), Maine (24.4%) and Wisconsin (23.3%) all saw significant year-over-year growth in the annual cost of raising a small kid. 

Families in six states are projected to spend more than $300,000 raising a child over 18 years, with Hawaii leading at $412,661, followed by Alaska ($365,047) and Maryland ($326,360). 

Child care increases nationwide

Big picture view:

This data comes after another recent study, which found that households with 2 kids must earn more than 400K to comfortably afford child care.

According to Child Care Aware of America, the average annual cost of child care for an infant and a 4-year-old across the U.S. was $28,190. 

RELATED: Households with 2 kids need to earn over 400K to comfortably afford child care in US

For a household to spend only 7% of its income on child care (based on an affordability threshold set by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), it would need to earn an average of $402,708 a year, the data found.

That’s 176.5% higher than the average income among households with two kids of $145,656.