$310K needed to raise a child until they’re 17

Raising a child can bring a lifetime of joy, but that joy will come with a major financial cost.

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The Brookings Institute says that it would cost a married, middle-income couple with two children, about $310,605 to raise the younger child to age 17, had they been born in 2015, The Wall Street Journal reported.

That amount does not account for college nor for other income levels, The Hill reported.

But it does look at the cost of housing, food, clothing, health care and child care, The Wall Street Journal reported. It also took into consideration the cost of supplies such as diapers and activities such as sports or dance and the equipment needed for them.

The group took a government average and adjusted it for inflation trends.

The analysts used an average inflation rate of 2.23%, which is close to what the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Expenditures on Children by Families Report, produced in 2017 used for the years spanning 2015 through 2020, then added an additional 1.77% starting in 2021, Fox News and The Hill reported.

The USDA estimated then that the cost of raising a child born in 2015 was $233,610, Fox News reported.

Breaking it down, it will currently cost more than $18,000 a year, or 9% more than previous estimates, the Journal reported.

Isabel Sawhill said the amount is based on past trends, comparing the cost of raising a child to the late 1970s when the country saw double-digit inflation, The Hill reported.

Sawhill is a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution, who along with Morgan Welch from the Center on Children and Families, produced the report.

“A lot of people are going to think twice before they have either a first child or a subsequent child. because everything is costing more,” Sawhill said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “You also may feel like you have to work more.”

The Labor Department said the consumer price index was 9.1% higher in June than that time last year, but fell slightly to 8.5% in July, Fox News reported.

But Sawhill said it won’t be forever.

“We know it’s very high right now, but we also know that the Fed is stepping on the brakes very hard and that it’s going to come down,” she said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “We don’t know how fast and to what level and how long it will stay somewhat elevated.”

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