A report from the Agriculture Department’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion indicated that a middle-income family with a child born in 2011 will spend about $235,000 in child-related expenses from birth through age 17. That is an increase of 3.5 percent from 2010. The estimate includes the cost of transportation, child care, education, food, clothing, health care and miscellaneous expenses.
Families in the urban Northeast will have the highest child-rearing expenses, followed by those in the urban West and Midwest. Those living in the urban South and rural areas will have the lowest costs.
I do not believe that most children are aware of these numbers. With children choosing to get pregnant, they should be informed of these costs.