STATESTATS The Rising Cost of Raising a Child ringing up baby isn’t getting any cheaper. Parents of a child born in 2013 will spend an estimated $245,340 to raise him or her to age 18, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The increasing costs of child care aren’t helping. In 2013, child care and education expenses ate up 18 percent of the total cost of raising a child; in 1960, only 2 percent went toward those Bexpenses. Child care is not only a necessity for working parents, if it’s high-quality care, it can help prepare kids to succeed in school. In any given week, 11 million children under the age of 5 nationwide are in some kind of a child care setting. But child care costs can be daunting for some families, who on average make the equivalent of $2,000 less every year than workers the same age did in 1980, according to the Census Bureau. And while take-home pay for nearly everyone has dipped, the cost of child care only goes up. The average annual cost to have an infant in a child care center in 2013 was higher than a year’s tuition and fees at a four-year public college in at least 31 states. The annual cost of having two children in a child care center full time is the highest single household expense in the Northeast, Midwest and South. In the West, housing is the only budget item higher in cost than child care for two kids. —Alison May and Julie Poppe
Child Care Costs The average cost of having two children in a child care center in 2013 varied by region.
Parents Feel the Pinch
The cost of raising a child born in 2013 to age 18: $245,340
How Parents Will Spend That Money
West: $17,941 Midwest: $17,258 South: $15,409 Northeast: $22,513
Percentage of Income Families below the federal poverty line spent roughly four times the percentage of their income on child care as other families.
Families not in poverty 8%
8% Families in poverty 30% 30%
Sources: Expenditures on Children by Families, 2012. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, August 2013; Child Care Aware report; USDA; Census Bureau.
STATE LEGISLATURES 7 JULY/AUGUST 2015