Price tag to raise a child in Britain: 75,000 dollars

BRITAIN: British couples planning to have a child should make a trip to the bank manager as well as to a doctor, according to a new study.

The study, carried out by the debit card Maestro UK in conjunction with the British magazine Family Circle, said the cost of raising a child until he or she is 18 years old is 43,056 pounds (62,899 euros, 74,676 dollars).

It said the figure is almost twice the national average household income per year. "Being a parent today should come with a financial health warning!" Family Circle editor Karen Livermore said in a statement released by her magazine.

"We all know that raising kids costs money - what we're now learning is that the costs rise as they age and are with us for longer," she said.

Children cost the most at 16 years of age, when parents pay an average 64 pounds (111 dollars) a week. The second most expensive children are those aged 15 and 11 years, at a price of 62 pounds per week to bring up. Those under one year old cost around 40 pounds a week.

Some 54 per cent of the 1,079 parents surveyed said they had found parenting more expensive than planned for, but 96 per cent said they were happy to pay out for the privilege of being a parent.

The study said most of the family money is spent on food, with children on average munching through 20,000 pounds' (35,000 dollars') worth by the time they reach voting age at 18.

The second biggest expense was clothing and entertainment, both costing on average seven pounds per week, although this figure went down when children reached 16.

While the average family spends just 156 pounds a year sending a child to school - a surprisingly low figure - one in 50 parents opts to educate their children privately, at a cost of over 5,000 pounds per child. And it dosen't end there. Despite 18 being the age at which children in Britain are legally considered adults, just a third of parents expect their children to become financially independent at that point.

More than 70 percent of parents expect to contribute to the purchase of their child's first car, and 44 per cent anticipate helping their youngster get their first step on the property ladder.

London, Friday, AFP.