How much it now costs to raise a child in Britain
Key Points
- Raising a child to 18 now costs about £260,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a single parent, peers heard.
- The UK has the fourth most expensive childcare in the world, with only 11% of employers offering it.
- Nearly 40% of people cite the cost of children as a reason to delay starting a family.
- The UK fertility rate fell to 1.39 in 2025, below the 2.1 replacement level.
- The government pointed to £500 million for Best Start family hubs in response.
Raising a child to the age of 18 now costs around £260,000 for a couple and £290,000 for a single parent in the UK, peers heard during a House of Lords debate on the country’s declining birth rates.
Baroness Geeta Nargund, the Labour peer who secured the debate, said nearly 40% of people cite the cost of raising children as a reason for delaying starting a family, a cost she said many describe as a second mortgage.
She told the House the UK has the fourth most expensive childcare in the world, and that only 11% of employers offer it.
Childcare costs and the fertility gap
Nargund said the UK fertility rate fell to 1.39 in 2025, well below the 2.1 needed to sustain the population.
She said many people still want children, or want more children, but cannot afford to have them, describing the difference between what families want and what they can afford as the fertility gap.
She said child-friendly policies pay for themselves, and called for equal access to fertility treatment to be treated as an economic priority.
Baroness Neville-Rolfe, the Conservative peer, said the number of babies born per woman fell to 1.39 in 2025, down from 1.9 in 2010. She said the Office for National Statistics projects around 450,000 more deaths than births in the UK over the decade to mid-2034.
Housing another major concern
The Lord Bishop of Chelmsford told the House that the average house now costs 7.6 times the average salary, rising to 10.6 times in London.
The Bishop said the expense of housing, student loan repayments and the rising cost of living all contribute to couples marrying later, starting families later and having fewer children than they had hoped.
The Bishop said two stable salaries are typically needed to pay a mortgage, and that for many young adults the prospect of saving for a deposit and starting a family feels increasingly out of reach.
Responding for the government, Lord Wilson of Sedgefield, a government whip, said decisions about having children are deeply personal, but that factors such as housing affordability, childcare costs, job security and broader economic confidence all shape those decisions.
He said the government is committed to providing funding for all local authorities to deliver Best Start family hubs, to a total of £500 million.
He said economic security includes access to stable and affordable housing, which can influence long-term family planning decisions.
