Households with children Households without children

What it means: there is no official figure for how much parents spend on their children, because most spending, such as rent, energy and food, is shared by the whole household. The Living Costs and Food Survey does show how spending differs between the 8.1 million UK households with children, which have 3.8 people on average, and those without, which have 1.7. Households with children spend more in total, especially on food (£88.80 against £61.60), transport, clothing and education, but less per person, because the money is shared among more people. The two groups also differ in age and income, so the gap is not the cost of a child. “Other items” covers things such as mortgage interest, council tax, holiday spending and money given to others. FYE 2025 is the year to March 2025. Shown for context.

Source: ONS, Family spending workbook 4, FYE 2025, tables A56 and A57.