Americans without children may avoid some of the substantial costs associated with raising a family, but that does not necessarily translate into greater confidence about retirement.
New research from insurance company Allianz Life has found that 54 percent of Americans who don’t have children believe they can meet their retirement savings goal, compared with 72 percent of parents.
The results suggest that while parents face expenses that can run into hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a child’s upbringing, retirement preparedness may depend on more than simply having fewer financial obligations.
Read More on News
Childless Americans Are Not Confident About Retirement
The 2026 Annual Retirement Study, conducted in January with 1,000 people age 25 and older, found a particularly wide gap in financial planning. Some 62 percent of respondents without children said they did not have a written financial plan, compared with 42 percent of parents.
Among parents, confidence was highest among those with one or two children, at 74 percent, falling to 66 percent among those with three or more.
“It may seem counterintuitive that people without kids are less financially confident and more worried about retirement,” Kelly LaVigne, the vice president of consumer insights at Allianz Life, said in a news release. “But not having children—and the expenses that come with kids—doesn’t automatically mean you have a plan to save. Parenthood often forces tough conversations about money. Without that catalyst, too many Americans may be moving forward without a strategy.”
Current expenses also weighed heavily on those without children, with 61 percent saying they could not think about saving for retirement because they were focused on covering day-to-day costs, compared with 53 percent of parents. Those without children were also more likely to worry that the cost of living, housing and long-term care would undermine their retirement.
How Much Does It Cost To Raise a Child?
Parents nevertheless face sizable costs that can compete directly with retirement contributions.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s last estimate found that a middle-income, married couple with two children could expect to spend $233,610 to raise a child born in 2015 through age 17, or $284,570 after accounting for projected inflation assumptions. The calculation did not include college. Housing represented the largest share of spending, followed by food. Child care and education costs accounted for the third largest share.
Researchers at the Brookings Institution later updated that model to reflect higher inflation. Assuming inflation averaged 4 percent annually after 2020, they estimated that total expenditures for the same child could reach $310,605 by age 17.
Among parents who said they were not saving as much for retirement as they wanted, the Allianz survey found, 29 percent blamed education expenses and 27 percent cited child care. Credit card and auto debt were also commonly cited obstacles.
How Much Are Americans Saving for Retirement?
The confidence gap comes as many Americans remain well short of having large retirement balances.
Vanguard’s 2026 How America Saves report, which examines workers participating in defined-contribution retirement plans administered by the company, found that the average account balance reached $167,970 at the end of 2025. The median, which is less affected by a smaller number of very large accounts, was substantially lower at $44,115.
There is also earlier evidence supporting the idea that having no children does not automatically translate into stronger retirement finances. A U.S. Census Bureau analysis using 2018 data found that about 42 percent of adults with no children had no retirement savings, compared with roughly 36 percent of people who had children with one partner. However, the relationship varied considerably by gender and marital history.
A 2024 Pew Research Center analysis found that adults age 50 and older who had never had children generally had higher median wealth and larger retirement accounts than parents. But they were also much more likely to live alone and less likely to be married, factors that can change the financial demands of retirement.
Retirement Costs May Factor Into Parenthood Decisions
Financial concerns are increasingly feeding back into decisions about parenthood itself.
Nearly half, or 48 percent, of respondents in the Allianz study said they had considered, or would consider, the difficulty of saving for retirement as a significant factor when deciding whether to have children. That rose to 64 percent among millennials, compared with 41 percent of Generation X and 18 percent of baby boomers.
“Becoming a parent is a deeply personal decision and everyone has their own unique set of circumstances. Finances are one of them,” LaVigne said. “Regardless of whether you have kids or not, writing down a financial strategy is one of the most powerful things you can do for your future security. And it’s a variable you can control.”
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Ben Kelly and Shakeema Edwards.