How much does a child actually cost in Switzerland?
A family in Switzerland, , will spend …
Direct cost, birth to 18 · 1 child
CHF 352'800
About CHF 1'633/month, every month, for eighteen years.
The shape of 18 years
A child is not one expense. It is a curve.
Monthly outflow per year of the child's age. Direct cash in cyan; childcare in violet, concentrated in the first years. The teen years rise quietly but never spike like the early ones.
Direct cashChildcare (added on top)Source: Zürcher Kinderkosten-Tabelle (Kanton Zürich, 1 March 2025)
The lever you actually pull
One control rewrites the budget.
Direct cash is mostly fixed: food, housing share, health insurance follow the child whether you like it or not. Childcare days are the one large variable you control. Move it and watch the curve, and the total, reshape.
Childcare days per weekNone
CHF 352'800baseline
What it could have been
The same money, invested instead.
If you set aside CHF 1'633/month in a globally diversified portfolio at a 6% real return, after 18 years you would hold roughly:
CHF 632'677
At 6% real return · CHF 352'800 contributed, CHF 279'877 from compounding
About 1.8× the direct cost.
This is the opportunity cost in plain numbers. It is not an argument against children. It is the size of the choice you are making, so you can plan around it: a savings goal, an 18-year compounding account in the child's name, or simply a clearer head.
For scale
What else costs about CHF 352'800?
A down payment on a home · CHF 200'0001.8×
Seed capital for a small business · CHF 350'0001.0×
Ten years of rent in a major city · CHF 480'0000.7×
A full K-12 private school education · CHF 600'0000.6×
A city apartment · CHF 700'0000.5×
Where the monthly cost goes
One child, one school month, eight buckets.
Monthly direct cash for one child, broken down by the cost table. Housing share and food dominate; phone and internet round to zero because they are typically already on the household plan.
FoodCHF 340
ClothingCHF 105
Housing shareCHF 570
Household & homeCHF 75
Health insurance premiumCHF 130
Health (out-of-pocket)CHF 55
Phone & internetCHF 0
Leisure, education & public transportCHF 300
See all scenarios at once
1 child, None
CHF 358'560
CHF 358'560
1 child, 3 Kita days
CHF 358'560
CHF 456'870
1 child, full Kita
CHF 358'560
+CHF 163'850
CHF 522'410
2 children, None
CHF 616'800
CHF 616'800
2 children, 3 Kita days
CHF 616'800
+CHF 196'620
CHF 813'420
2 children, full Kita
CHF 616'800
+CHF 327'700
CHF 944'500
3 children, None
CHF 854'640
CHF 854'640
3 children, 3 Kita days
CHF 854'640
+CHF 294'930
CHF 1'149'570
3 children, full Kita
CHF 854'640
+CHF 491'550
CHF 1'346'190
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to raise a child in Switzerland?+
What is included in the Zurich child-cost table?+
How expensive is Kita / daycare in Switzerland?+
Does the table apply outside the canton of Zurich?+
Why does the per-child cost go down when there are more siblings?+