Expenditures on Children by Families, 2015 Revised

Since 1960, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided estimates of annual expenditures on children from birth through age 17. This technical report, originally published in January 2017 and revised in March 2017, presents the 2015 estimates for married-couple and single-parent families. Results are shown in tables 1-7 at the end of this report. Expenditures are provided by age of children, household income level, major budgetary component (housing, food, etc.), and region (for married-couple families). Results of this study may be of use in developing state child support and foster care guidelines, as well as public health and family-centered educational programs. The revisions update child care and education values for ages 0-2 and 3-5 years for the regional estimates in tables 2-5.