时事资讯:美国养育孩子成本高昂

【英文原文】

Quarter-Million Dollar Baby: The High Costs of Raising Children

Our children, of course, are priceless. But they do have a cost: about a quarter-million dollars.

A new government report estimated that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 raising that child from birth through age 17, according to the Associated Press. (The number rises to some $292,000 when adjusted for inflation.) The figures don't count the cost of college or childbirth.

Annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between $11,610 and $13,480 per-child in married, middle-class family with two children.

The report, by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said that housing was a family's single largest expense, followed by food and the costs of child care and education.

Money spent on child-related costs increases as a family's income goes up. For instance, those with an income between $57,000 and $99,000 spend about $221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly $367,000 through age 17. Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas.

We've written before about the decision to add to the family in tough economic times. How much thought did you give to the cost of raising children in your decision to have a family or to have additional children? What are your biggest costs in raising your children?