A middle-income family will spend an average $37 a day to raise a child from birth to age 18, according to government figures on food, housing, health care, child care, education and other expenses. The numbers add up – $1,136 a month, $13,630 a year, $245,340 for the span from newborn to adult, says USDA’s “Cost of Raising a Child” report. Based on projected rates of inflation, the daily cost will be $46 and the total would be $304,480 when a baby born in 2013 is ready to leave the home in 2031.
The projected cost is up 1.8 percent from a year ago. The average annual increase since 1960 is 4.4 percent. Costs are highest in the urban Northeast and lowest in rural America and cities in the South. Economist Mark Lino, the author of the report, said the cost of raising a child decreases by 22 percent for additional children. “Children can share a bedroom,” he said, and parents can save money by buying food in bulk. Costs are highest in the teen years, when children eat more and get a driver’s license, adding to insurance costs.
Housing is 30 percent of the cost of raising a child, followed by child care and education at 18 percent and food at 16 percent. The biggest growth in costs has been childcare and education, Lino said. In 1960, it was 2 percent.
“When you have children, it’s important to plan ahead,” said Agriculture Undersecretary Kevin Concannon. He said the annual report, formally named Expenditures on Children by Families, is used by local governments and courts in determining child support and foster care guidelines.
The report is available here. An infographic is available here.