"Expenditures on Children by Families, 2008"
This technical report presents the most recent estimates for husband-wife and single-parent families using data from the 2005-06 Consumer Expenditure Survey, updated to 2008 dollars using the Consumer Price Index.
A middle-income family with a child born in 2008 can expect to spend about $221,190 ($291,570 when adjusted for inflation) for food, shelter and other necessities to raise that child over the next seventeen years. For the overall U.S., annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between $11,610 and $13,480 for a child in a two-child, married-couple family in the middle-income group.
Housing costs are the single largest expenditure on a child, averaging $69,660 or 32 percent of the total cost over seventeen years. Food and child care/education (for those with the expense) were the next two largest expenses, each averaging 16 percent of the total expenditure.
Issued by USDA each year since 1960, the report aims to assist courts and state governments in determining child support guidelines and foster care payments.
