Our Commitment

Global KidCost Calculator is a YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) topic site. We hold ourselves to the highest editorial standards because families use our estimates for relocation, budgeting, and financial planning decisions. This page documents our editorial process, data standards, and conflict-of-interest policy.

Data Standards

• Primary Sources: World Bank GDP per capita, Numbeo cost-of-living indices, national statistics bureaus (UK ONS, Japan Cabinet Office, China NBS, US BLS, SingStat, ABS, StatCan), OECD family-spending data, and verified government family benefit program documentation.
• No Fabrication: Every cost figure is derived from our structural estimation model using real base costs and regional cost archetypes. We never invent or fabricate city data.
• Currency Conversion: Exchange rates are updated quarterly. All figures are presented in both USD and local currency.
• Inflation Projections: Future cost projections use IMF/central bank target inflation rates, compounded over 18 years.

Review Process

• Reviewer: Dr. Wei Zhang, Senior Family Finance Researcher at the Global Family Finance Lab. LinkedIn · ORCID
• Review Frequency: All data is reviewed quarterly. City pages are updated with the latest subsidies, inflation rates, and cost-of-living adjustments.
• Version Control: Each page displays a dateModified field in its JSON-LD structured data and a visible "Last reviewed" date.
• Corrections: If you find an error, please contact us. We commit to reviewing and correcting factual errors within 5 business days.

Conflict of Interest Policy

• Independence: Global KidCost Calculator does not accept advertising, sponsored content, or affiliate commissions. Our estimates are not influenced by any commercial relationship.
• Funding: The project is self-funded and open-source (MIT license).
• License: All data and content are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0). You are free to share and adapt our data with attribution.

Methodology Transparency

Our full methodology is documented at /methodology/, including the structural estimation model, cost-structure archetypes, private-school premiums, multi-child discounts, and known limitations. We encourage users to read the methodology before relying on any figure.

Citation

If you reference our data in academic work, please cite as: