Raising children is expensive in the United States, and families are feeling the pressure. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a report using 2015 data that estimated expenses of child rearing from birth through age 17 in a middle-income family of two adults and two children is $233,610. With inflation, that number translates to almost $286,000 in 2022. Here’s why it’s so expensive to raise children in the U.S. and some of the policies the federal government could implement to help.
