Grand Canyon Times

A new estimate by the Brookings Institution has found that the cost of raising a child is $26,000 higher than it was just two years ago.

Families currently will spend more than $300,000 to raise a child through high school, a recent Axios report said. That’s an average of $18,271 per year and approximately $26,000 more than it cost two years ago.

"A married, middle-income couple with two children is likely to spend $310,605 — an average of $18,271 a year — to raise their youngest child born in 2015, per Brookings, which first shared the estimates to the Wall Street Journal," Axios repeated in a Twitter post.

The Wall Street Journal also reported that the increase in cost to raise children is up 9% based on the inflation rate from two years ago.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Aug. 10, which showed an 8.5% all items year-over-year increase through July 2022. That represents a 0.6% drop from June. Among the biggest contributors to the price index were increases in food, shelter and electricity.

Data from Statista has shown that inflation has been on a steady incline over the past 18 months, rising almost every month since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

Arizona’s inflation rate for July was at 15.4%, information from the U.S. Senate Joint Economic Committee Republicans’ State Inflation Tracker showed. The state's additional monthly cost per household added up to $833, with the annualized cost per household amounting to $9,999.

"This is Joe Biden's recession,” Ronna McDaniel, Republican National Committee chairwoman, said in a recent Newsweek report. “Biden can lie and deflect blame all he wants, but that will not alleviate the pain Americans feel every time they fill up their gas tanks, go grocery shopping, check their retirement savings, or balance their budgets. Biden and Democrats are responsible for our shrinking economy, and they're only trying to make it worse."