RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COST OF RAISING A CHILD

                                            Release No. 0453.97
                                                               
                                       Jim Borland (202) 690-0469
                                             jim.borland@usda.gov
                                      John Webster (202) 418-2312
                                            john.webster@usda.gov


USDA RELEASES ANNUAL REPORT ON THE COST OF RAISING A CHILD

     WASHINGTON, Dec. 23, 1997--The McCaughey family of Carlisle, Iowa--newly expanded by seven members with the recent birth of septuplets--will
face a bill of about $960,000 in raising its seven newborns to age 17
according to a report issued today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 
Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman announced the availability of the annual
report "Expenditures on Children by Families" which examines the cost of
raising children through age 17.

     For a child born in 1996, the report estimates that a middle-income
family will spend $149,820 over the next 17 years to provide food, shelter
and other necessities in raising a child.  In 1960 when projections were
first made, a middle-income family could expect to spend $25,229 to raise a
child.  The estimates do not include the cost of childbearing or the cost of
a college education.  Some current-day costs, such as child care, were
negligible in 1960.

     "This report, issued annually since 1960, has proven to be an
invaluable resource to states in determining child support guidelines and
foster care payments," said Glickman.  "For middle income, two-parent
families, annual expenses for one child in a two-child family ranged from
$7,860 to $8,960."

     For the average family, housing was the single largest expenditure on
a child accounting for 33 percent of total costs over 18 years.  Food was
the second largest expense accounting for 17 percent of the total.  Families
with one child spend approximately 24 percent more, on a per-child basis,
than families with two children, and families with three children spend 23
percent less per child than those with two children.

     The report notes geographic variations in the cost of raising a child
in different regions of the country.  Overall child-rearing expenses are
highest for families living in the urban West, followed by the urban
Northeast and urban South; families living in the urban Midwest and rural
areas have the lowest child-rearing expenses.

     Both the 1996 and 1995 annual reports are available as pdf files on
the CNPP home page at http://www.usda.gov/fcs/cnpp.htm.  A limited number of
single printed copies are available by writing to USDA's Center for
Nutrition Policy and Promotion, 1120 20th Street, N.W., Suite 200, North
Lobby, Washington, DC 20036.

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