For $235,000, you could indulge in a shiny new Ferrari — or raise a child for 17 years! A government report released Thursday found that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about that much in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. This doesn't include tuition costs for private schooling or Bar/Bas Mitzvah expenses, so raising a child in the Orthodox Jewish community actually costs a whole lot more.

Study: Raising a Child Costs $235,000

For $235,000, you could indulge in a shiny new Ferrari — or raise a child for 17 years! A government report released Thursday found that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about that much in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. This doesn’t include tuition costs for private schooling or Bar/Bas Mitzvah expenses, so raising a child in the Orthodox Jewish community actually costs a whole lot more.

From the AP:

The report from the Agriculture Department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion said housing is the single largest expense, averaging about $70,500, or 30 percent of the total cost.

Families living in the urban Northeast tend to have the highest child-rearing expenses, followed by those in the urban West and the urban Midwest. Those living in the urban South and rural areas face the lowest costs.

The estimate also includes the cost of transportation, child care, education, food, clothing, health care and miscellaneous expenses.

The USDA has issued the report every year since 1960, when it estimated the cost of raising a child was just over $25,000 for middle-income families. That would be $191,720 today when adjusted for inflation.

Housing was also the largest expense in raising a child back in 1960. But the cost of child care for young children — negligible 50 years ago — is now the second largest expense as more moms work outside the home.

The report considers middle-income parents to be those with an income between $59,400 and $102,870. It says families that earn more can expect to spend more on their children.

The cost per child decreases as a family has more children. The report found that families with three or more children spend 22 percent less per child than those with two children. The savings result from hand-me-down clothes and toys, shared bedrooms and buying food in larger quantities.

15 Comments

  • Maybe, but....

    No clue where they get their numbers from, but without schooling, my numbers are no where close to that!

  • Inaccurate and not for us

    In the 1960’s and the 1970″s these type of articles were popping up all over. people felt stupid having more children they couldn’t afford. The breakdown of the money is never shown. These articles have no place in our lives and should never be published.

  • nice, but.....

    while it is interesting, I fail to understand why a CHABAD – JEWISH website posts articles totally unrelated to judaism.
    I know that this is not an official chabad website, but still…..

  • We are for FREE!!!

    Raising a goy $235,000 a jew is for FREE, Hashem provides his allotement to his or her parents until they marry.
    Hashem spends around today $40,000 per year per child if you provide them school, food, clothes, tzedaka money etc…
    So it’s around a 1’000,000.00 or more .

  • mob

    the expense is worth every penny and pays you back tenfold over the course of your lifetime.

  • we dont pay for it anyway

    Most people in CH get 80% from the govt, and the other 20% they save by getting paid off the books and not paying taxes

  • BS D

    Good thing HaShem sends each child with its own parnassa. Otherwise no one would be able to afford children.

  • brochos

    “The cost per child decreases as a family has more children.”
    Duh – its the economies of scale…

    Hopefully,that will put a lot of things in perspective for people who say “they can’t afford another child”
    Yes, each child costs, and your overall spending increases, but it decreases each time you have a child – and what you gain is well worth the cost!!

  • FROM 770

    WHAT TO THINK TWICE FOR YOUNG COUPLES TO HAVE KIDS????!!!! NOT SO GOOD TO ADVERTISE IN OUR ORTHODOX COMMUNITY, NO BIRTH CONTROL TO BE USED

  • Anonymous

    No need to spend on Bar and Bat mitzvas. So sad how parents are pressured into this just because “everyone else” is doing it. The amount spent on these parties is obscene.

  • TO #3

    what do you mean???
    i don’t get whats wrong…let this website post watvr it wants if u dont like it u can leave

  • FROM #3

    TO #14:
    OKAY FINE, BUT THEN YOU’RE ADMITTING THAT THIS WEBSITE ISN’T A LUBAVITCH WEBSITE, AND OCCASIONALLY POST NON-JEWISH-RELATED MATERIAL.
    BASICALLY, YOU’RE ADMITTING THAT THIS WEBSITE DOESN’T EXCLUSIVELY POST JEWISH-RELATED MATERIAL!!!