The average cost of raising a child in the UK has reached £231,843 a new study has found.
This is £12,588 more expensive than the average semi-detached house. The most expensive place to have children is London where each child raised there will cost around £253,638. By contrast the cheapest place in the country is Yorkshire and the Humber which averages a cost of £214,559 for each child.
Childcare and babysitting fees add up to an average of £70,000. This represents around a third of the total cost of raising a child until they turn 21. Parents also spend £19,000 feeding each child and £10,000 on clothes over the same period.
Education is also a major expense. Parents spend around £74,000 on each of their children’s schooling. This includes uniforms, equipment, lunches, trips and university costs. Those with privately educated children pay even more. The total cost of raising their children is between £141,863 and £260,927 higher than those whose children attend state schools.
These figures were published by insurance firm Liverpool Victoria (LV). They also found that as many as six in ten parents struggle to manage their finances. The firm’s managing director Myles Rix said that the cost of raising a child in the UK was “at an all-time high” and that “family incomes are being stretched even further” as prices increase.
Costs have been on the rise for several years. In 2014 research found that families with two children need to bring in an annual income of over £40,000 in order to enjoy a reasonable lifestyle.
In theory that should stop most people being able to reproduce unless they’re very well off; especially the direction social policy is taking. Still it potentially sorts out social problems and problems of poverty. Makes the term living wage interesting.. as it’s certainly not enough to have a living family on..