What’s most expensive place to raise kids in CA? This city ranked No. 2 in nation

Starting a family? California is home to the second-most expensive place in the nation to raise a child, according to SmartAsset.

The personal finance website recently looked at the costs of raising children in the United States’ largest metropolitan areas in 2025, including housing, food and medical expenses.

“Common costs associated with raising a child — such as child care, additional food, medical costs, housing and more — can add up to tens of thousands of dollars per year,” SmartAsset contributor Jaclyn DeJohn wrote in a June 10 article. “This makes raising a child a relatively expensive line-item anywhere, but in some metro areas these costs can be double those in others, sometimes reaching nearly $40,000 per year.”

Nationally, the median annual cost of raising a child was $22,850, according to SmartAsset.

Here how much it costs to raise kids in California’s biggest cities:

How much does it cost to raise a child in San Francisco?

According to SmartAsset, it cost $29,468 annually to raise a child in California in 2024, making the Golden State one of the priciest places for child care in the United States.

In comparison, raising a kid in 2025 in the San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont metro area cost an annual total of $38,981, the study found.

That’s a 9.3% increase from 2024, when it cost $35,642 annually to raise a child in the San Francisco metro area.

The San Francisco metro area was the priciest California city for parents in 2025, the SmartAsset study found, and the second-most expensive metro area in the nation.

Only one major metro area was more expensive for those with children: the Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro area in Massachusetts. There, it costs $39,221 a year to raise a child.

Here’s how parents in the metro area that encompasses San Francisco, Oakland and Fremont spent their money in 2025:

• Child care: $21,730
• Housing: $6,065
• Food: $2,366
• Medical costs: $4,064
• Transportation: $3,102
• Civic costs: $657
• Other costs: $998

Despite its high cost of living, Fremont was the No. 1 city to raise a family in the United States, according to personal finance website WalletHub.

Fremont boasts one of the highest median household incomes in the nation, at $176,350 a year, U.S Census Bureau data showed.

According to WalletHub, the city of Fresno had the third-lowest share of families living in poverty in the nation and the third-lowest share receiving food stamps.

Fremont ranked second in the nation in terms in child care and education, WalletHub said, and scored high marks for affordability and health and safety.

How expensive is raising kids in San Jose? San Diego?

SmartAsset ranked a total of six California cities in terms of child-rearing costs.

The San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro area was the third-most expensive place in the nation to raise kids, with annual costs totaling $37,867.

The metro area including San Diego, Chula Vista and Carlsbad came in sixth place on the list. It costs $32,040 a year to raise a child in those Southern California cities, SmartAsset said.

The Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom metro area rounded out the top 10 priciest places to raise children, with costs totaling $30,204 per year.

Further down in the rankings, the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area was No. 15, and the Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario metro area was No. 16.

Where are most expensive cities in US to raise children?

These were the most expensive U.S. metro areas to raise a child in 2025, and much households sent on child care annually, according to SmartAsset:

1. Boston-Cambridge-Newton: $35,841 per year
2. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont: $35,049
3. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara: $32,803
4. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue: $30,425
5. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Connecticut: $30,247
6. San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad: $29,468
7. Denver-Aurora-Centennial: $27,849
8. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington: $27,806
9. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington: $27,630
10. Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom: $27,406

What are cheapest metro areas for families?

According to SmartAsset, these were the 10 most affordable cities for child care in the United States in 2025, and how much families spent each year:

1. Birmingham, Alabama: $19,082 per year
2. Memphis, Tennessee: $19,264
3. Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin, Tennessee: $20,787
4. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell: $20,821
5. San Antonio-New Braunfels, Texas: $20,945
6. Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford: $21,327
7. Louisville-Jefferson County, Kentucky: $21,625
8. Houston-Pasadena-Woodlands: $21,868
9. Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida: $21,876
10. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn: $21,930

How did SmartAsset come up with its rankings?

To rank the least and most expensive cities to raise children, SmartAsset used data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator to compare the living costs of households with two working adults and one child to those of childless households with two working adults in 48 of the United States’ largest metro areas.

The personal finance website also compared costs in those area for “food, housing, child care, health care, transportation and other necessities” in February 2025 to those in February 2024.

This story was originally published June 24, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "What’s most expensive place to raise kids in CA? This city ranked No. 2 in nation."