Red-Hot Inflation Drives up Cost of Raising a Child by Over $1,500 per Year: Report

Soaring inflation has driven up the cost of raising a child from birth to 17 years old by around $1,530 per year to a total of over $300,000, according to a Brookings Institution estimate provided to The Wall Street Journal.

But with inflation soaring to multi-decade highs, those figures have seen a sharp upward adjustment. According to the report, the same family now has to spend $18,271 per year, for a total of $310,605, or over $25,000 more in total compared to when inflation was running at target.

Inflation in the United States as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed prices vaulted in July by an annual 8.5 percent.

Some economists—and many Americans facing sticker shock when buying everyday essentials—believe the true rate of inflation is much higher. An alternative CPI inflation gauge developed by economist John Williams, calculated according to the same methodology used by the U.S. government in the 1980s, puts July’s inflation figure at an annual 16.8 percent, nearly double the official figure.

Running the numbers using Williams’ estimate for the pace of inflation would put the multi-year total cost of raising a child through age 17 to $336,770, or $19,810 per year. That’s higher by a total of $52,176 compared to the Brookings Institute baseline estimate if inflation was running at 2 percent. It would also mean that child-raising costs have jumped by $3,069 per year.

Republicans have blamed the jump in child-rearing costs on the policies of their political rivals.

“It’s costing families nearly $6,000 a year, bigger than any tax increase ever proposed,” Trump said at a July 22 rally in Arizona.

The inflation-driven cost-of-living crunch has hit Americans in various ways.

Soaring prices have put the Federal Reserve on a path of aggressive monetary tightening, prompting a number of economists to warn that the country could tip into a recession.