Child Rearing: An Expensive Proposition
A recent report from the US Department of Agriculture offers some eye popping statistics on the costs of raising a child. Based on a study of 11,800 husband-wife families and 3,350 single-parent households, the price tag for middle class parents on raising one child through the age of 17 is $222,360. And those costs have been steadily rising. For example, adjusted for 2009 dollars, middle-income parents in 1960 spent a total of $182,857
The reasons for the jump? Parents today spend more on health care and education. As a percentage of total child-rearing expenditures, today's middle-income families spend approximately twice as much on health care as they did in 1960. And education and child care, which in 1960 accounted for just 2 percent of total child-rearing expenditures, now accounts for 17 percent.
The study also found that, on average, low-income households spend more than twice as much of their before-tax income than high-income households do. Low-income families -- those who make a before-tax income of less than $56,670 -- spend 25% of their income on raising a child, while high-income households -- those who make a before-tax income of more than $98,120 -- spend just 12% of their income on child-rearing.
For more information, go to http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/expendituresonchildrenbyfamilies.htm
