時事新聞:美國養育孩子成本高昂
【英文原文】
Quarter-Million Dollar Baby: The High Costs of Raising Children
Our children, of course, are priceless. But they do have a cost: about a quarter-million dollars.
A new government report estimated that a middle-income family with a child born last year will spend about $221,000 raising that child from birth through age 17, according to the Associated Press. (The number rises to some $292,000 when adjusted for inflation.) The figures don't count the cost of college or childbirth.
Annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between $11,610 and $13,480 per-child in married, middle-class family with two children.
The report, by the USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, said that housing was a family's single largest expense, followed by food and the costs of child care and education.
Money spent on child-related costs increases as a family's income goes up. For instance, those with an income between $57,000 and $99,000 spend about $221,000 and those with higher incomes are expected to spend roughly $367,000 through age 17. Costs of raising a child are highest in the urban northeast and lowest in the urban south and rural areas.
We've written before about the decision to add to the family in tough economic times. How much thought did you give to the cost of raising children in your decision to have a family or to have additional children? What are your biggest costs in raising your children?
【中文譯文】
我們的孩子當然是無價之寶。但養育他們確實是需要成本的：大約25萬美元。
據美聯社(Associated Press)報導，一份新的政府報告估計，一箇中等收入家庭將去年出生的孩子撫養到17歲將花費大約22.1萬美元。（經通脹調整後的數字約爲29.2萬美元。）這一數字沒有計入孩子上大學的費用或生孩子的費用。
有兩個孩子的中產階級家庭每年平均在每個孩子身上花的錢大約在11,610美元至13,480美元。
美國農業部(USDA)的營養政策與宣傳中心(Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion)發佈的這份報告說，住房是家庭最大支出，其次是食品和孩子的撫養及教育費用。
用在孩子身上的開支隨家庭收入增長而增加。舉例來說，收入在5.7萬美元至9.9萬美元之間的家庭將孩子養到17歲大概要花22.1萬美元，而收入更高的家庭大約花費36.7萬美元左右。東北部城市養育孩子的花費最高，南部城市和農村地區則最低。
此前我們討論過經濟困難時期家庭所需要做的決定。在決定要孩子或是多生孩子時，你有沒有考慮過養育孩子的成本？你撫養孩子最大的開支是什麼？
