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It’s never been cheap to have a kid, like at all, but just like practically everything else, it’s getting more expensive. According to the latest research from LendingTree, raising a child from birth to age 18 now costs an average of $237,482. Umm, that's a lot of cash
Key findings from the study:
- The biggest expense of raising a kid is child care, which comes to an average of $11,752 a year.
- Location makes a big difference in that amount, with costs in Washington, D.C. topping $25-thousand a year and in Massachusetts it can be $21-thousand a year.
- The most expensive state to raise a child is Hawaii, where parents spend an average of $30,506.
- Mississippi is the most affordable state for parents, where a year of child raising expenses averages just $15,555.
- In the U.S., parents spend about $1 of every $5 on raising their kids.
- The cost of 18 years of raising a child is highest in Hawaii at $314,529 and lowest in South Carolina at $169,327.
- And when you add in paying for college, the price of raising a kid could double, depending on where you live and what kind of college they go to.