Twin Cities rank 8th most expensive city to raise a child in 2026: Map
Minnesota housing misses goals
The Twin Cities missed annual goals for new housing, affordable units and Black homeownership, according to a recent report. FOX 9’s Leon Purvis has the details.
(FOX 9) - A new report shows families in the Twin Cities are facing some of the steepest costs in the country when it comes to raising a child.
Rising expenses for Twin Cities families
What we know:
SmartAsset ranked the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington area as one of the top 10 most expensive metro areas for raising children in 2026, with annual costs reaching $33,307 for a household with two working adults and one child.
The report found that childcare is the biggest expense for local families, totaling $19,509 per year.
Food costs for a child in 2026 came in at $2,172, while other expenses added up to $11,626.
The data says that the annual cost for raising a child in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington jumped just over 8% from February 2025 to 2026.
Dig deeper:
The report evaluated 48 of the largest metro areas in the country, using MIT Living Wage Calculator data to compare the cost of raising a child in homes with two working adults to those without kids.
Other metro areas topping the list for highest annual costs include San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont ($43,171), Boston-Cambridge-Newtown ($42,584) and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara ($41,817).
The Twin Cities ranked just ahead of Sacramento-Roseville-Folson, California and Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon.