Estimate the cost of raising a toddler.
Toddler costs are dominated by one line. Childcare typically accounts for two-thirds to three-quarters of the total, which is why the share figure is reported alongside the money — it tells you where the only meaningful lever sits. Food, clothing and activities are real but small by comparison, and optimising them changes the annual figure by a few percent at most. Any decision that changes childcare hours, by contrast, moves the total immediately and substantially.
Annual cost of a toddler
Annual = (childcare + food + clothing) x 12 + healthcare + activities
Because it is priced as skilled labour with regulated staff ratios, and toddler ratios are among the strictest. Nothing else in a child's budget scales with another adult's working hours, which is what makes it structurally different from every other line.
Childcare costs fall once free or subsidised early-education hours begin, and that drop usually outweighs the rise in food and activity costs. The total typically dips between ages three and eleven before climbing again in the teens.
Housing and transport attributable to the child, and lost earnings from reduced working hours. Both are frequently larger than every line here combined, but they depend so heavily on circumstances that they are better modelled separately.