The Cheapest and Happiest Cities to Raise a Family

Looking for the best city to bring up your family? You’re in the right place. This guide will help you understand which cities offer a happy and cheap life for your family in 2023.

You may be worried about the cost of living and quality of life in a new city. We understand your concerns. Many people visit our site for advice on topics like this, so you are not alone.

In this guide, we’ll share important details about:

• Budapest and Stockholm, the cheapest and happiest cities to raise a family in 2023.
• The top five and bottom five cheapest and happiest cities for raising a family.
• The cost of raising a child in different cities in 2023.
• Tips on how to support a family on a budget.
• The UK’s money-savviest cities in 2023.

Our team has done lots of research and used real data to help you make the best choice. Some of us have even moved cities to give our families a better life, so we understand your worries. Let’s dive in and learn more about finding the best city for your family.

Budapest and Stockholm Are Tied as the Cheapest and Happiest Cities to Raise A Family

Top 5 Cheapest and Happiest Cities for Raising a Family

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

Budapest has been crowned the cheapest and happiest city to bring up a family in 2023, with an overall score of 7.7. While the average salary expectancy is low in the capital ($12,664) when compared to other cities, this income is matched with low costs of food ($489), rent ($1,038), and healthcare (free). 

Also tied for first place in this study is Stockholm, with a happiness rating of 7.4 and an overall score of 7.7. Interestingly, Stockholm is one of two cities in the study’s top 5 that charge for children’s doctor appointments ($15). This is balanced out, however, by the city’s incredibly low childcare costs of $135 (the lowest in the whole study) and the low cost of monthly bills ($168, the second lowest in the study). 

Madrid (7.6), Copenhagen (7.5), and Oslo (7.5) complete the top 5 best cities for families. While Madrid’s happiness rating of 6.4 is slightly lower than Copenhagen’s 7.6 and Oslo’s 7.3, the Spanish city’s low food cost ($482) and monthly bill expenditure ($236) contribute massively as to why it is in third place. Additionally, Madrid and Copenhagen don’t charge for child healthcare which also impacts their overall ranking. 

Bottom 5 Cheapest and Happiest Cities for Raising a Family

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

The study revealed that Zurich (4.3), New York (4.6), and Hong Kong (4.8) are the most expensive cities to raise a family. While Zurich and New York have relatively high happiness ratings (7.2 and 6.9 respectively), the costs to live in these cities certainly outweigh the happiness levels. 

Both New York and Zurich charge above $100 per visit for children’s doctor appointments, which plays a huge part in raising a family. Additionally, all three cities in the study’s bottom three have expensive food costs, with Zurich families expecting to spend $1,332, Hong Kong families spending $887 and New Yorkers spending $886 on one monthly food shop. 

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 Cities to Raise a Child

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. 

Zurich, which is considered the most expensive and least happy city to raise a family in our study, ranks as the second most expensive city to raise a child overall, with the total cost of raising a child in the city amounting to $5,520. However, residents are much better off in terms of disposable income, as the average salary in Zurich per person is $6,849 – over $1,000 more per month than child costs. 

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 Cheapest Cities to Raise a Child 

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

Budapest is officially the least expensive city to raise a child, with the average monthly cost per child working out at $1,198. However, it is the only city in the 5 least expensive places to raise a child where the average monthly salary per person ($1,055) is lower than the average monthly cost to raise a child. Parental figures in Budapest will need to consider whether two financial incomes may be more beneficial in the city if they wish to raise a family on the city’s average wages. 

Stockholm ($1,464) and Vienna ($1,499) follow as the second and third least expensive cities to raise a child, with both cities’ average monthly salaries found to be above $3,000, making these two places ideal for raising children in terms of cost factors. 

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 For 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: 

To calculate the cheapest and happiest cities in the world to raise a family, we analysed the 25 most populous global cities and calculated the ranking using the following data points.

• 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.