A suburban home, a white picket fence and 2.5 children.
Of course, no family can have half a child. Yet for roughly 70 years, many Americans have treated 2.5 children—meaning two or perhaps three—as the ideal family size. The figure became a kind of shorthand for the traditional American nuclear-family dream.
As that dream grows increasingly difficult for ordinary households to afford, however, wealthy Americans are turning to a larger family as a new display of privilege—nearly doubling the familiar number.
Pew Research Center data shows that millennials and Generation Z are having fewer children, citing a mix of economic and social pressures. In affluent circles, meanwhile, status symbols can include Hamptons summer homes, sophisticated security systems and, increasingly, the ultimate luxury: four children.
Who better to embody that version of American success than “Mr. Showtime” himself?
On Tuesday, NFL superstar Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, announced that they are expecting their fourth child—a new sibling for son Patrick “Bronze” Lavon Mahomes III and daughters Sterling Skye and Golden Raye.
“Another blessing from God & then there were 6,” the high school sweethearts wrote on Instagram.
The announcement came just four months after Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance welcomed their fourth child, a son named Alec Neel. The couple also have sons Ewan Blaine and Vivek, as well as a daughter, Mirabel Rose.
NFL star Patrick Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, announced Tuesday that they are expecting their fourth child
Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance welcomed son Alec Neel in July, their fourth child
And they are far from the only high-profile parents embracing a family of four.
Other celebrity parents with four children include Kim Kardashian and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West; David and Victoria Beckham; Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds; Chrissy Teigen and John Legend; and Jason and Kylie Kelce.
Recent figures from the Federal Reserve’s 2025 Survey of Consumer Finances suggest that having a third child may help distinguish America’s wealthiest households from the broader top 10 percent.
According to an October analysis by economist Mike Konczal, roughly 35 to 45 percent of families earning between $26,000 and $1.4 million a year have at least three children. Among families earning more than $1.4 million annually, that share rises to 49 percent.
The ultra-rich, however, are moving beyond the third child and treating a fourth as something of a humblebrag.
Researchers estimate that raising a child from birth through age 17 costs about $300,000. That figure does not include private-school tuition, higher education, extracurricular activities or family vacations.
For a family with four children, the basic cost of raising them can therefore reach $1.2 million—before the extras associated with the new American dream are added.
That estimate certainly does not cover the approximately $1,400 mini Range Rover and child-sized Mercedes-Benz reportedly received by the Mahomes children for Christmas in 2025. Nor does it include the $5,000 Balenciaga outfit worn by North West, the 13-year-old daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, in New York City last year.
“Given that financial resources are one important roadblock that the wealthy do not face, this opens up the path for them to have more children,” Doron Shiffer-Sebba and Julia Behrman, sociologists at Northwestern University, told Our News Outlet.
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Chrissy Teigen and John Legend have four children
Kim Kardashian and Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, have four children: Saint, Psalm, Chicago and North
North, the eldest of the four children, was seen in New York City last year wearing a $5,000 Balenciaga outfit
Shiffer-Sebba studies wealthy families, while Behrman’s research focuses on fertility preferences.
The affordability crisis facing American families has contributed heavily to the country’s falling birth rate, which reached a record low last year—down 23 percent from 2007.
For wealthy Americans, having children in the current climate has become “a form of conspicuous consumption,” Jennifer Glass, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, told Our News Outlet.
Put another way, the rich are no longer signaling their economic power solely through Birkin bags, Rolex Daytonas or Ferraris. They are also displaying it by having larger families—and buying those children their own luxury goods.
Cardi B, who has three children with rapper Offset and one with NFL wide receiver Stefon Diggs, famously gave her daughter Kulture an $8,000 pink Birkin for her second birthday. For Kulture’s third birthday, she received a custom pastel-yellow Birkin covered in rainbow Swarovski crystals that reportedly cost $48,000.
Glass and other demographers have been examining this shift for years.
Large families have moved from being associated with “folks at the bottom with less access to fertility control” to becoming more common among society’s wealthiest ranks. Surrogacy, which can cost an average of $150,000 to $200,000 in the United States, has also helped the trend “gain in popularity with wealthy affluent body conscious women,” Glass said.
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have four children, all under the age of 12
Cardi B, who has four children, famously gave her daughter Kulture an $8,000 pink Birkin for her second birthday
Kardashian and Teigen have both used surrogates. Kardashian’s two youngest children—daughter Chicago and son Psalm—and Teigen’s youngest son, Wren, were born through gestational carriers. Teigen’s surrogate, Alexandra Ryan, recently told Our News Outlet that she was paid in monthly installments for carrying and giving birth to Wren in 2023.
But brand strategist Eugene Healey argues that money alone is not enough to make a large family manageable.
“You need active support systems through family or paid childcare. You need enough accumulated career capital to take parental leave without it being career suicide,” Healey wrote in a Substack post.
He describes four children as “the ultimate status symbol” because “it requires several forms of privilege operating simultaneously.”
At first glance, a rise in the number of children born to wealthy families might appear to reduce inequality, since elite resources would have to be distributed among more heirs.
But research by Shiffer-Sebba indicates that the richest families use tools such as trusts, corporations and mission statements to “keep the wealth together even as families grow exponentially.”
In this case, more really may be merrier.
