Average child support payment in the US (2026)

“How much is child support on average?” has two honest answers. One is what families report: national surveys by the U.S. Census Bureau and program data from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement. The other is what the guidelines produce: each state’s formula applied to the same family. This guide gives both, and explains why neither predicts the guideline amount for a particular family.

For your own figures, the child support calculator applies your state’s current guidelines to your incomes, children and parenting time.

The national average from Census surveys

The most detailed national figures come from the Census Bureau report Custodial Parents and Their Child Support, based on the Child Support Supplement to the Current Population Survey. It covers calendar year 2022, with amounts in that year’s dollars.

• 13.9 million parents were raising children whose other parent lived elsewhere. Only 41% of them had a court order or an informal agreement for child support.
• 4.7 million custodial parents were supposed to receive payments. On average they were due $6,390 for the year, which the report puts at roughly $533 a month.
• The median amount due was $4,816 a year: half of these parents were due less and half were due more. A median below the mean means a smaller number of large awards pull the average up.

A second Census survey, the Survey of Income and Program Participation, gives a more recent snapshot. Its fact sheet Child Support Received reports that 4 million parents received cash child support in 2023, $28 billion in total, and that the average monthly amount they reported was $671.

The two surveys measure different things. The first asks what parents with an agreement were due and what they received over the year. The second asks parents who received cash support how much they got. Their averages aren’t directly comparable, and both mix every income level, family size and parenting arrangement in the country.

What is due and what is received

An average of what is owed is not the same as what arrives. Of the custodial parents who were supposed to receive support in the Census report, 75.5% received at least some payment and 49.5% received the full amount. Altogether they were due $29.9 billion and received $19.2 billion. Counting parents who received nothing, the mean amount actually received was $4,106 for the year and the median was $2,768.

Program data from the federal Office of Child Support Enforcement show the same pattern for cases handled by state child support agencies. In its preliminary report for fiscal year 2025, $29.3 billion in child support was distributed, the program served 12 million children, 86% of cases had a support order, and 65% of the current support due was collected.

When payments stop, agencies can use income withholding, tax refund offsets and other tools, covered in how child support is enforced. Unpaid support becomes arrears, and many states add interest, as explained in back child support and arrears.

What the guidelines give for one family

Survey averages describe a population. The guideline amount describes one family. To see what the formulas produce, take one family and run it through every state’s current guidelines. Parent A earns $60,000 a year and Parent B earns $40,000. The children live mainly with Parent B, Parent A has them about one night a week, and there is no child care, health insurance or other children in the calculation.

For one child, the median guideline amount across the 51 jurisdictions covered here is $697 a month. It ranges from $515 in Idaho to $1,049 in Massachusetts. For two children, the median is $1,042, ranging from $705 in Idaho to $1,473 in Massachusetts.

A high or low place in this table isn’t a verdict on a state. Each schedule reflects the economic studies the state relies on, whether it starts from gross or net income, and how it treats the receiving parent’s income. The order also shifts with income and family size. Each state page explains its formula and links to the official worksheet or calculator. For more scenarios, the child support amounts by state dataset gives every state’s guideline amount for one and two children at three income pairs, with a CSV download.

How income changes the answer

Income moves the guideline amount more than anything else. With lower incomes, Parent A at $40,000 and Parent B at $30,000, the median across states is $556 a month for one child and $796 for two. With higher incomes, Parent A at $100,000 and Parent B at $60,000, the median is $955 for one child and $1,405 for two.

At the bottom of the income range, self-support reserves and minimum orders can hold the amount well below what the schedule alone would give; see child support for low-income parents. At the top, schedules end and courts decide how far to extend them, covered in child support for high incomes. National averages blend all of these families, which is one reason they rarely match a calculation for a specific family.

Why the average can mislead

Beyond income, several facts move a family’s guideline amount away from any average.

The number of children. Each additional child raises the amount, but by less than the first. The multiple children guide shows how the steps differ by state.

Parenting time. Many states reduce support once the paying parent has enough overnights. In North Carolina, the example family’s guideline amount for two children is $1,056. With Parent A at 146 overnights a year, it becomes $528. The parenting time guide compares the rules, and the parenting time calculator counts overnights from a schedule.

Add-ons. Most worksheets add work-related child care and the children’s health insurance to the basic amount and divide them by income. With child care of $600 a month, the same North Carolina family’s amount becomes $1,416. Survey averages don’t separate these costs from basic support.

Other children and earlier orders. Support paid for children from another relationship, or other children living in a parent’s home, often reduces the income used for the current case.

Agreements and deviations. The survey figures include informal agreements and orders set years ago, which can differ from the guideline amount for the same family today. Courts can deviate from the guidelines when applying them would be unjust or inappropriate, as explained in when courts deviate from the guidelines.

Using these figures

The national averages show how child support works out across the country: what parents are due, how much of it arrives, and how many families have an agreement at all. They don’t show what the guidelines give for a particular family. For that, the child support calculator estimates the guideline amount under your state’s current rules, and how child support is calculated explains the models behind it.

The guideline amount is an estimate, not a prediction of an order. Courts can deviate from the guidelines, and the facts a court accepts can differ from the figures entered in a calculator. The state’s child support agency or a family law attorney can say how the guidelines apply when incomes or parenting time are disputed.