Report: A Blueprint for Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania’s birth rate is dropping. Polling consistently shows young people are deciding not to grow their families because they financially cannot afford to have kids. Recent estimates show it takes about $32,000/year to raise a child in Pennsylvania. This is alarming for an aging state like Pennsylvania.

Read our new report (AVAILABLE SOON), Investing in Families to Build a Stronger Economy: A Blueprint for Pennsylvania and read our policy recommendations, which are based on successful family policies in other states, and what is possible in Pennsylvania’s current political landscape. These evidence based policy solutions are aligned with feedback from parents, family-serving organizations, and policymakers regarding what families need.

This report was done in partnership with Maternity Care Coalition.

SOURCES for this report:

• Experiences of Adults Without Kids in the US | Pew Research Center
• Mapped: The Cost of Raising a Child in Each U.S. State in 2025
• The Policy Impact Calculator – Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center, Vanderbilt University
• Child and Dependent Care Credit | Department of Revenue | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Working Pennsylvanians Tax Credit | Department of Revenue | Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
• Advancing Intergenerational Mobility Through Early Childhood Economic Security: Examining the Evidence | PolicyLab
• Child Care and Early Learning in Pennsylvania