New numbers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show it will cost more than $220,000 to raise a child born last year. The Expenditures on Children by Families report says a middle-income family with a child born in 2008 can expect to spend $221,190 on food, shelter and other necessities to get that child to age 18.
Housing costs are the largest expenditure, $69,660 or 32 percent of the total cost. Food and child care/education were the next largest, each averaging 16 percent of the total. This does not include the cost of college.
It is a little cheaper for lower-income families; $159,870 for families with an annual income under $56,870 and more expensive, $366,660 for families making more than $98,470.
The report also notes the most expensive place to raise a child in the United States is in the urban Northeast while the urban South and rural areas are the cheapest.
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