Raising child pegged at $235,000

WASHINGTON – 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.

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

Families in the urban Northeast have the highest child-rearing expenses, followed by the urban West and urban Midwest.

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 in 1960. But the cost of child care – negligible 50 years ago – is now the second largest expense.

The report considers middle-income parents to be those with an income between $59,400 and $102,870.