"No Holding Back on Spending Money or Childcare"... U.S. Grandparents Open Their Wallets for Grandchildren Born Later in Life

90% of U.S. Grandparents Provide Financial Support to Their Grandchildren
Contribute an Average of $2,654 a Year; Unpaid Care Also Has Significant Value
As Childbirth Is Delayed, Grandparents Meet Their Grandchildren Later and Have Fewer of Them

"I Don't Have the Stamina to Run Around with My Grandkids, but I Can Afford to Give Them Spending Money"

As people in the United States are becoming grandparents later in life, more grandparents are providing financial support to their grandchildren, such as giving them spending money or helping cover childcare costs.

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The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on October 24 that grandparents welcoming grandchildren later in life are feeling the physical limits of aging, while having greater means to support their grandchildren financially.

A survey by AARP found that 90% of U.S. grandparents provide financial support to their grandchildren. The average annual amount was $2,654 (approximately 3.51 million won). Grandparents also spend considerable time caring for their grandchildren. According to an AARP report, grandparents spent an average of 500 hours caring for their grandchildren in the year before the survey.

Grandparents spend $172 billion directly on their grandchildren. Adding an estimated $731 billion in economic value for unpaid caregiving, the so-called "grandparent economy" is worth approximately $900 billion a year.

However, the entire value of the "grandparent economy" should not be understood as financial support. Of the approximately $900 billion, the $172 billion spent directly on grandchildren accounts for less than 20%. Most of the rest represents the monetary value of the time grandparents spend caring for their grandchildren.

Ellen Vance, 65, retired in October 2025, two weeks before her first granddaughter, Anna, was born. Since then, she and her husband, Darryl, have cared for their granddaughter for about five hours a day, three to five days a week. "It's physically demanding, but it's something you can't help loving just as much," Vance said. She regretted having to cut back on the time she spends caring for her granddaughter because of persistent neck pain and an upcoming spinal surgery.

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According to the Pew Research Center, the average age of grandparents in the United States is 68. Grandparents account for just 27% of people in their 50s and 51% of those in their 60s. As their children have children later because of later marriages and rising ages at childbirth, and as family sizes shrink, grandparents are also seeing fewer grandchildren. With fewer grandchildren, grandparents are increasingly concentrating their support on one child, putting toward their grandchildren assets accumulated before and around retirement.

A similar trend is emerging in South Korea. As people are becoming grandparents later because of later marriages and rising ages at childbirth, "six-pocket" spending—in which a child's parents, both sets of grandparents, and aunts and uncles all open their wallets for one child—is growing, as are gifts of stocks registered in grandchildren's names.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.