Cathy Isom continues her report on the Cost of Raising a Child by letting you know what a recent USDA report says about where most of your dollars will go when it comes to raising a child these days. That’s coming up On This Land of Ours.
Download Raising a Child-Where Your Dollars Go
The USDA’s annual Cost of Raising a Child Report says parents who give birth to a child in 2015 and raise them until their 18th Birthday will spend more than $233,000.00, with most of the money going toward housing. 29 percent to be exact, from middle-income married couple families. The second biggest expense is food, which as USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion Director Angie Tagtow notes.
“It accounts for about 18-percent of the total cost.”
The 2015 study also lists in order the other major expenses in raising a child
“Childcare accounted for 16-percent of expenses while transportation came in at 15-percent. Healthcare expenses accounted for 9-percent, while clothing was 6-percent and miscellaneous expenses, things like sports equipment and personal care items came in at 7-percent.”
When the first report was done in 1960, housing and food were the two highest expenses, just as they are today. Tagtow , said an increase in housing costs over time and changes in American agriculture have resulted in lower food costs, and family food budgets now represent a lower percentage of household income.
To learn more and read the entire report, Expenditure on Children by Families, 2015, you can go online at www.usda.gov.
I’m Cathy Isom…