Those Cute Babies Come With $233,530 Price Tag Parents of Y2K babies, prepare to gasp.
The average cost of rearing a child born last year will be about $165,630--or $233,530, factoring in inflation--for food, shelter and other necessities over the next 17 years, the Agriculture Department said.
That’s about $5,000 more than what it took to raise a baby born in 1999. In inflation-adjusted dollars, the cost of raising a child has increased 13% since 1960.
The report also found that it’s most expensive to raise a child in the urban West, followed by the urban Northeast and urban South.
The annual USDA report is used by state agencies and courts in determining child support guidelines and foster care payments.
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