How Much Does It Really Cost to Raise a Child in Michigan?

The cost of raising a child in Michigan might surprise you.

While families across the country have experienced a jump in the cost of basic necessities from groceries to medicine, a new analysis says the costs of raising a child has actually decreased in the Detroit area.

SmartAsset, a nationwide investment advising company, used the MIT Living Wage Calculator to examine the cost of raising a child in 48 of the largest metro areas across the U.S. 

The data compares the change in cost from February 2024 to February 2025 and takes into account the cost of food, housing, childcare, healthcare, transportation and more. 

How much does it cost to raise a child in Michigan? 

The analysis shows that the cost of raising a child in the metro area of Detroit, Warren and Dearborn actually decreased by 9.29%. Now, the annual cost of raising a child in 2025 comes in at $21,930, a significant decrease from last year’s $24,176. 

That decrease might be a surprise to some southeast Michigan families dealing with the high cost of necessities like childcare and groceries.

SmartAsset broke down the 2025 costs by category for the Detroit, Warren and Dearborn region: 

• Cost of childcare: $10,480
• Housing costs: $3,420
• Food costs: $1,866
• Medical costs: $1,780
• Transportation costs: $2,946
• Civic costs: $573
• Other costs: $863

Compared to some of the most expensive metro areas, the cost to raise a child in the Detroit area doesn’t seem quite as high. The Boston metro area has the highest cost to raise a child in the largest metro areas across the country. Every year, raising a child sets Boston area families back $39,221. 

How much money does it take to raise a child in southeast Michigan? 

The analysis from SmartAsset only looked at the Detroit, Warren and Dearborn area in Michigan, but the MIT Living Wage Calculator includes information from across the state. 

The calculator includes a breakdown of how much a family with two working parents would need to make annually before taxes to meet the expenses of raising one child.

How much combined annual income before taxes two working parents would need to make to meet the expenses of raising one child by county: 

• Wayne County: $84,517
• Macomb County: $87,228
• Oakland County: $91,962
• Washtenaw County: $96,905

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