The Cost of Raising A Child According to the USDA

According to the NY State Vital Statistics for 2011 (the most recent year for which data is available), more than 3,300 babies were born to moms in the combined Herkimer and Oneida Counties region. The cost of raising a child extends well beyond the delivery room of course, and according the the U.S. Agriculture Department, typically runs into the hundreds of thousands of dollars until the child reaches the age of legal majority.

The USDA recently released its annual report, Expenditures on Children by Families, also known as the Cost of Raising a Child. The report shows that a middle-income family with a child born in 2012 can expect to spend about $241,080 ($301,970 adjusted for projected inflation) for food, shelter, and other necessities associated with child-rearing expenses over the next 17 years. This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 2011. Expenses for child care, education, health care, and clothing saw the largest percentage increases related to child rearing from 2011. However, there were smaller increases in housing, food, transportation, and miscellaneous expenses during the same period. The 2.6 percent increase from 2011 to 2012 is also lower than the average annual increase of 4.4 percent since 1960. 

They offer the following infographic as a means of understanding how these costs are spread out over the lifetime of a child.