How much does it really cost to raise a child? An expert does the maths

Canberra, Oct 29 (The Conversation) Australians are having fewer children than ever. At 1.5 babies per woman, the fertility rate is at a record low. Many attribute this to the cost of having and raising children.

If this is true, it raises questions of intergenerational fairness and future planning for governments. What do we do about the young would-be parents who are opting out because it’s simply too expensive? The problem with this assumption is that while it may feel true that childbearing must have become more expensive over the decades, it’s not that simple.

So what do parents have to fork out to raise children, how do we measure it, and are kids really that much more expensive now than they used to be? Crunching the numbers -------------------------- Calculating the cost of raisi