Thinking of starting a family? Just had a baby and aghast at the cost of diapers and formula which no one really mentioned may cost more than your monthly cell phone bill?
Well consider this: The average cost of raising a child for a middle-income family is now about $245,340, representing a 1.8 percent spike ($4,260) over last year yet the smallest increase since the economic depression that hit a few years ago.
The big nut in the cost is housing, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture that provided the information in an annual report. Sheltering a child is 30 percent of the tally, which is the same as it was back in 2012.
"Improving economic times would definitely help families be able to afford to spend more on kids," Elizabeth Peters, director of the Center on Labor, Human Services and Population at the Urban Institute in Washington. "And they allow them to think about starting to have a family in a situation when they wouldn't have before."
The report states wealthier families spend more than twice as much on children than middle income or lower-income families.
The second big cost factor in raising a child is childcare, at least for the richer families. Lower-income families spend a greater amount on food than childcare.
The report notes that the annual figure does not include college costs, but does take into account clothing, transportation. Healthcare costs landed fifth on the list of the most expensive costs, and rose 2.3 percent over the past year.
"The pace of the climb in health care is decreasing, and that's helped moderate the rise in costs," said Mark Lino, a USDA economist in charge of the study.
The report notes that it costs more to raise a child in the northeast region than in the Midwest or west. The cheapest place to raise children is in urban south and rural areas as housing is the top expense across the board.
The report also doesn't take into account the cost of any health or medical issues with a child. As Tech Times has reported, supporting a child diagnosed with autism can cost as much as $2.4 million during a lifetime due to lost wages, required education and residential care.
