European First Year Baby Cost Map
A nappy is not a traded asset, but the basket it sits in is priced every day. A study by Remitly calculated the annual cost of baby essentials during the first year of a baby’s life across 38 European countries, using prices as of July 2026.
The first-year baby basket is a consumer-goods bundle with unusually steady demand that barely changes when prices or incomes move.
Fourteen staple items in six categories make up the basket: nappy changes, bottles, baby formula, sleep, transport and clothing. It is the shopping list a household writes before it writes any other.
The basket ranges from EUR 2,813 in the UK to EUR 6,294 in Spain. [1] The European average is EUR 4,727. [1] Five countries clear EUR 6,000: Spain, the Netherlands at EUR 6,140, Finland at EUR 6,066, Sweden at EUR 6,025 and Switzerland at EUR 6,018. Ten more sit between EUR 5,000 and EUR 6,000, from Luxembourg at EUR 5,665 down to Iceland at EUR 5,004. At the other end, six countries fall below EUR 4,000: Czechia, Romania, Latvia, Croatia, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The basket is not evenly weighted. Clothing takes 30.3 % of the total, baby formula takes 25.7 % and nappies take 24.5 %. Together those three lines absorb 81 % of first-year spending. In cash terms, parents spend an average of EUR 1,465 on clothing, EUR 1,187 on formula and EUR 1,152 on nappies. That is EUR 3,804 before a cot, a car seat or a pushchair is counted. The distribution shifts from country to country. Clothing is just 16 % of costs in Denmark but 52.5 % in Sweden. Formula is 10.8 % of the bill in Sweden and 41.3 % in Latvia. Nappies are 12.4 % in Turkey and more than 36 % in Switzerland and Belgium.
Habitat matters more than the raw price tag. Wages differ enormously across the continent. Measured against average annual earnings — International Labour Organization figures, inflation-adjusted — baby essentials take 20.9 % of the average wage across 36 countries. In Belgium the share is 5.4 %. In Moldova it is 88.8 %. Albania sits at 66 %, Turkey at 45.1 %, Montenegro at 45 %, Serbia at 41.4 %. Seven countries ask parents for a third of a year’s average wage or more. Eleven others keep the share under 10 %: Luxembourg at 6 %, Denmark at 6.7 %, the UK at 7.5 %, Norway at 7.6 %, Ireland at 8 %, Switzerland at 8 %, Germany at 8.1 %, Austria at 8.2 %, France at 8.5 %, Malta at 8.9 % and the Netherlands at 9.4 %.
The channel here is not sentiment but household cash flow. Baby essentials are necessary purchases: a cot and a car seat must be bought, and a nappy cannot be postponed.
Public support can reshape the same basket dramatically. On childcare — deliberately excluded from this research — the OECD recorded 2023 fees before subsidies and tax relief for two children of EUR 64,211 in Switzerland. The Netherlands recorded the highest figure in the EU at EUR 39,229. Germany recorded EUR 552. Costs after subsidies and tax relief for two children reached EUR 10,200 for a single-earner family in Switzerland and EUR 27,551 for a two-earner couple. In some countries, net childcare falls below EUR 5,000 once government support is applied.
The burden falls unevenly. Households in Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark and the UK carry the least, while households in Moldova, Albania, Turkey, Montenegro and Serbia carry the most relative to what they earn. Between them sits the European average of about a fifth of a year’s wage.
Four variables will move these ratios. Wage growth across the lower-income end of the map, because it is the base number in every one of these ratios. Family-benefit policy, because it is the fastest lever available to governments. The childcare line item, because it is larger than the basket itself in several countries and stays outside this measurement. And the price of clothing, formula and nappies, because those three categories carry four-fifths of the load.
The study covers 38 countries on prices not adjusted for inflation from July 2026 and compares them with average rather than midpoint wages. It assumes one child, one year, and a specific list of 14 items. Affordability also depends on whether both parents work, on taxes, and on benefits that vary from canton to canton and municipality to municipality. This is educational analysis, not investment advice.
The same basket costs a household in Tirana most of a month’s pay and barely registers for a household in Zurich. Same items, same baby, and a gap that no single price tag captures.
Sources
1. Euronews — Quote source (original article)
Mentioned organisations (context, not sources)
- Nvidia — Organisation (homepage)
- Apple — Organisation (homepage)
- Microsoft — Organisation (homepage)
- Remitly — Organisation (homepage)
- International Labour Organization — Organisation (homepage)