A middle-income family may spend $234,900 to raise a child born in 2011 to age 18, a 3.5 percent increase in a year, according to a government report.

Expenses for child care and education, transportation and food represented the biggest jumps, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in their latest report. Adjusted for anticipated inflation, a child in a middle-class family would cost $295,560 to raise, the department said.

The typical two-parent middle-income family spent $12,290-$14,320 in 2011 on each child, the study found. A family earning less than $59,410 a year will probably spend $169,080 in 2011 dollars to rear a child, while parents earning more than $102,870 may pay $389,670, according to the study.

Expenses were highest for children raised in the urban Northeast, followed by cities in the West and Midwest, the USDA said. The urban South and rural areas were the least expensive.

Housing accounts for the biggest portion of expenses, averaging 30 percent over 17 years, the USDA said. Child care and education costs at 18 percent and food, at 16 percent, are the next biggest costs.

Learning that raising a child is more expensive than ever is stomach-turning big news with my first child entering the world in September.

[Forbes]

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Jeff Cormier

Dad, husband, dog lover, law, write at DigitalDeconstruction.com and other online destinations, forever immature. It's the me that I let you know.

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