Family costs and happiness: MoneyNerd’s 2023 city study

An archive of MoneyNerd’s April 2023 comparison of selected cities, with important limits on what the figures can show.

Budapest and Stockholm Are Tied

The Top 5

Table 1 – Top 5 Cheapest and Happiest Cities to Raise a Family, 2023

In MoneyNerd’s April 2023 comparison, Budapest and Stockholm shared the highest displayed overall score, 7.7. This was a result within the study’s selected sample and scoring method, not an official worldwide award or a current cost-of-living ranking.

Stockholm’s displayed overall score was also 7.7. The table’s healthcare and childcare figures are historical inputs with eligibility and coverage assumptions; they should not be treated as the price every family pays or as proof that a child’s medical appointment currently costs that amount.

Madrid, Copenhagen and Oslo completed the top five in the original combined index. A combined affordability-and-happiness score is different from a ranking of costs alone. National happiness information also does not establish how happy every household in a particular city will be.

The Bottom 5

Table 2 – Bottom 5 Cheapest and Happiest Cities to Raise a Family, 2023

Zurich, New York and Hong Kong had the lowest combined scores among the displayed bottom-five entries. This does not by itself make them the world’s three most expensive cities or imply that costs objectively outweigh happiness. The result depends on the selected indicators and their weights.

Doctor-appointment inputs in the table do not represent a universal out-of-pocket charge. Public entitlement, age, insurance and the service used can substantially alter what a family pays. Check current local healthcare rules before using such figures in a relocation budget.

While New York’s costs are highest in their rent payments ($7,158 a month), Zurich’s high costs for raising a family are centered around childcare costs ($3,034) and bills per month ($399). 

London (5.3) and Singapore (5.3) also rank in the bottom five cities to raise a child when looking at costs and happiness. The cities’ happiness ratings aren’t too far below the higher cities, with 6.8 for London and 6.6 for Singapore, but renting costs for a family flat are much higher in these cities ($4,714 and $6,838 respectively). 

So how much does it actually cost to raise a child?

The Cost of Raising a Child by City in 2023

While happiness plays a huge factor in deciding which city is best to raise a family, the costs of raising a child in different countries may limit where parental figures can hope to look after children – particularly whether their monthly salaries can support the monthly average cost to look after a child. 

To establish the average monthly cost of raising a child, MoneyNerd considered all of the essential costs associated with raising a child per analysed city, including all the metrics we considered above i.e. cost of food, cost of childcare, etc. along with diaper costs, clothing costs, school uniform costs and recreational activity costs i.e. cost of a cinema ticket or extracurricular activity. 

Top 5 Most Expensive

Table 3 – 5 Most Expensive Cities to Raise a Child, 2023

New York takes first place as the most expensive city to raise a child, with a total monthly expenditure of $5,561 per child. With an average monthly salary of $5,950 (before tax) per person, parents in New York will need to consider how to balance family costs when compared with the average salary found in the city. 

The historical monthly-cost table placed Zurich second among the five displayed high-cost cities. It did not show Zurich to be the least happy city: the combined index and the happiness measure are different. Comparing salary with the modelled cost also does not establish disposable household income after tax and all other expenses.

Completing the most expensive cities to raise a child is London in third place, with parental figures expecting to pay $4,232 monthly per child, Singapore is fourth with $4,162, and Sydney is fifth with $3,716. 

Top 5 Least Expensive

Table 4 – 5 Least Expensive Cities to Raise a Child, 2023

Budapest had the lowest displayed monthly-cost estimate in this study’s sample. That is not an official global finding. The salary and cost figures use particular assumptions and should not be treated as a budget for every household or an estimate of the additional cost of one more child.

Stockholm and Vienna followed in the historical lower-cost table, using the displayed estimates of $1,463 and $1,499 respectively. These estimates do not establish that the cities are affordable for every family; income, tax, housing, childcare eligibility and household composition matter.

Madrid is the fourth least expensive city for raising children, with a monthly cost of $1,639. Finally, Oslo completes the five least expensive cities to raise a child, with an average monthly cost to raise a child of $1,643, which is well-balanced against the capital city’s high average monthly salary of $3,850. 

7 Tips On How to Support a Family On a Budget

MoneyNerd spoke to a range of parenting and financial experts to reveal how parents should be spending their money to make the most of their incomes, while also taking good care of kids. Here are 7 tips to lower the costs of raising your family:

1. Follow all of your favourite shops on Instagram and Twitter. 

Spotting a deal as soon as it appears is key to saving huge amounts of money, particularly from the shops you regularly spend money with. Janine Marsh, blogger at Thrifty Family, urges parents to ‘Follow everything you love on Instagram and look out for offers’ in order to limit spending, as shops are likely to announce savings on social media first. 

2. Organise a toy swap for your kids. 

Janine Marsh comments, ‘Do a toy swap in the school holidays with a friend for a week with a kid the same age’. This is the perfect way to not spend any money on entertainment, yet it gives your child the opportunity to play with something new and exciting for a week. Not only does this relieve parental figures of financial stress, but it also encourages kids to make new friends in the process. 

3. Practice meal planning to reduce needless waste. 

Organising what you’re going to eat at the start of each week and then only buying necessary items is great for limiting overspending. Kirsty Jennings, blogger at Miss Pork Pie, has said ‘Meal planning is a great way to save money on your food shop! Take the time to make a shopping list and menu, and make sure you stick to it.’

4. Try using ChatGPT to organise your meal plans and shopping lists. 

While meal planning can take quite a bit of time to sort out, there are tools to speed up this process. Scott Nelson, founder of MoneyNerd, has said, ‘Using ChatGPT to arrange your meals for the week and then asking it to organise a shopping list from this plan takes all of the hard work out of prepping. The key to using AI to do this is being as specific as possible – tell ChatGPT how long you need the meal plan for in terms of days, any dietary requirements you have, and the types of foods you don’t want to be included in your meals. From there, it will give you a full meal plan, and then you simply need to ask it to turn the meals into a grocery list.’

5. Have a go at growing your own fruit and vegetable gardens. 

Kirsty Jennings comments, ‘Consider growing your own fruits and vegetables, even if you only have a small garden or patio. Homegrown produce tastes great and can save you a significant amount on your food bill over time.’ Even if you don’t have any outdoor space in your home, you can try building an indoor garden to grow vegetables. All you’ll need is a bed planter and a window that gets a lot of sunlight. 

6. Save money and time with batch cooking. 

Cooking meals in large quantities will help to save a lot of money on food shopping, particularly if you buy the ingredients in bulk. Janine Marsh says, ‘Batch cooking is the way to go. For example, you can make a huge shepherd’s pie and freeze half of it for another meal.’ She also recommends that families buy frozen veg as ‘it’s cheaper and won’t go off. It’s also better for you because the nutrients are frozen in and you’ll have less waste’.

7. Invest in store-own products rather than branded items. 

Kirsty Jennings says, ‘Another great tip I’ve picked up over the years is to buy the store’s own brand version of your favourite products – they’re often just as good at a fraction of the price!’ This can be applied to absolutely anything, not just food products – clothing from supermarkets, for example, will be just as good quality as high street brands, just without the cost associated with the brand name.  

For more information on money-saving tips and tricks for families, please visit MoneyNerd.co.uk. 

Methodology: 

The original analysis compared 25 selected cities using the indicators listed below. It should not be described as the 25 most populous cities worldwide. The data was collected in April 2023 and is retained here as a historical study.

• Average Salary: https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/
• Cost of Living Index: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
• Happiness Rating: https://worldhappiness.report/
• Cost of Household Food Shop: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
• Cost of Doctor Appointments: Analysed by country, for example – Singapore: https://singapore-medical.com/medical-costs
• Cost of Childcare/Pre-School: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
• Cost of Transportation: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
• Cost of Rent: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
• Cost to Buy an Apartment: https://www.finder.com/uk/world-cost-of-a-flat#european-cities-compared 
• Cost of Basic Monthly Bills: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/

All prices are in USD. The data was collected and analysed in April 2023.

Limitations: the published article does not provide the full underlying dataset, weighting formula, exchange-rate date or a complete explanation of how household expenses were allocated to a child. Its results cannot be independently reproduced from the tables alone. Some source measures concern countries or households, rather than children or individual cities. Use current local information and your own budget for relocation decisions.