The United States Department of Agriculture has crunched the numbers and it concludes today that if you had a child in 2012, it'll cost you $241,080 to raise him or her for next 17 years.
If you adjust it for inflation, that number soars to $301,970.
This represents a 2.6 percent increase from 2011. The USDA reports:
"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."
CNN reports that despite that bit of good news, wages aren't keeping up with the increases.
"The country's median annual household income has fallen by more than $4,000 since 2000, after adjusting for inflation, and many of the jobs lost during the recent recession have been replaced with lower-wage positions," CNN reports.
We'll leave you with a cool graphic put together by the USDA:
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