TOP 10: Most & Least Expensive Cities To Raise A Child (Article)

#AMPtv got the word that according to a new report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, having a child can cost you up to a quarter million dollars. At the same time what does this $245,340 figure really mean for you? The government's report calculated the average cost across the country of the U.S., but the cost of living varies massively by location. A home that's $120,000 in Michigan might be over a million dollars in California. Check out what Nerd Wallet had to say about it all.

              Where you live can have a major impact on the bottom line of parenting. Housing, for one, constitutes 30% of the total costs calculated by the USDA. Education and daycare costs, which added up to only 2% of family income in 1960, now take a whopping 18% of the average family's income and can also vary widely by geography. Sending your child to daycare costs more than sending them to college in 31 states.

             To find out the true cost of parenting, NerdWallet crunched the numbers in cities across the U.S. Trends and takeaways: The cost of raising a child varies by more than $340,000 based on location Parents can spend less than the $245,340 average on raising a child in some cities — the cost of raising a child is actually $50,000 less than the U.S. average in Norman, Oklahoma, The Midwest and Texas dominate the list of the least expensive cities to raise a child.

Most expensive cities to raise a child

Rank	City	Cost of raising a child
1	New York (Manhattan), NY	$540,514
2	Honolulu, HI	$429,635
3	San Francisco, CA	$402,112
4	New York (Brooklyn), NY	$400,951
5	Hilo, HI	$369,559
6	San Jose, CA	$363,807
7	Orange County, CA	$353,081
8	Washington, DC	$342,552
9	Oakland, CA	$337,477
10	Fairbanks, AK	$334,562

Least expensive cities to raise a child

Rank	City	Cost of raising a child
1	Norman, OK	$199,298
2	Harlingen, TX	$199,694
3	Ashland, OH	$206,793
4	Salina, KS	$207,525
5	Pueblo, CO	$208,155
6	Memphis, TN	$208,322
7	Temple, TX	$208,593
8	Richmond, IN	$209,522
9	Jackson, MS	$211,309
10	Hattiesburg, MS	$211,451

Methodology: We took the $245,340 number compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and adjusted it for cost of living in each city using the cost of living index from the Council for Community and Economic Research. More from NerdWallet: The Benefits and Drawbacks of Using Your Child’s 529 to Pay Off Credit Card Debt baz foo This article originally appeared at NerdWallet. Copyright 2014. Follow NerdWallet on Twitter.

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