Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Child Raising Costs Vary

by Barbara A. Holt, Ph.D.

Clark County Extension Agent --

Family and Consumer Sciences

Cooperative Extension Service

The cost of a younger child living in a two-child, husband-wife household in the United States in 1995 averaged between $5,490 and $12,550 per year, according to the U.S. Department of Argiculture (USDA).

Figures are from an on-going study started in 1960 to estimate expenditures on children from birth through age 17, using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey. Figures are updated each year using the Consumer Price Indwx, and estimates used to set child-support guidelines and foster care payments.

Spending by middle-income two-child, husband-wife families in the urban south ranged from $7,730 for a child age 2 or younger, to $8,950 when the younger child was between ages 15 and 17. Average income for this middle income group was $45,000 a year, and ranged from $33,800 to $56,900.

Housing accounted for the largest expense, 32 percent. Food was 17 percent, with transportation close behind at 15 percent of the family expenditure dollar.

Other categories included chld care and education (10%), clothing (8%), and health care (7%). Misscellaneous expenses -- personal care items, entertainment and reading materials -- accounted for 11% of total expenditures.

In a lower-income family, estimated annual expenditures on the youngest child living with mom and dad in the urban south in 1995 ranged between $5,550 for a 2-year-old and $6,630 when the younger child was between 15 and 17 years. The average annual income of lower-income families was $21,100 and always less than $33,800.

Proportional expenditure breakdowns were: housing (32%), food (19%), transportation (14%), clothing (9%), health care (8%), child care and education (8%), and miscellaneous (10%).

Judith Urich, district family resource management specialist with the Cooperative Extnesion Service, University of Arkansas, says to keep in mind your particular situation when comparing yourself with the averages for southern families.

No one family is average. For example, your family may have special health requirements, pay school tuition, or drive your car more miles to school or work than other families.

As any parent of teenagers knows, annual expenses for child rearing for the younger child go up as children get older. In middle income urban southern families, average costs for feeding the 2-year-old child were $910 and for the 15- to 17-year-old, $1,790. Parents averaged $470 to clothe the toddler and $840 to clothe the teen. Only expenses for child care and education went down, from $1,140 for the 2-year old to $400 for a 12- to 14-year-old. In the late teens, expenses went back up to $700 for the 15- to 17-year old largely due to education expenditures.

Using 1995 dollars, it is estimated the average middle income urban southern family will spend $148,260 on the younger child during the first 18 years. The lower income family will spend about $106,890.

Families spent more on children in 1995 than in 1960 when the study started. Expenditures have increased almost 12% in the 35 years since the study began.

A child is on of the largest investments a family will make. Take good care of yours.

For more information on family finances, contact the Clark County Extension office at 246-2281.