This is how expensive it is to have a child in 2022

Around me, there is still a real baby boom going on. It's been a few years now, as the oldest are already going to elementary school. I am very content with my kitty, who is now twelve years old (and no, don't say that's old because my cat is immortal and I refuse to believe otherwise). And over those twelve years, I've had to spend quite a bit of euros on my Pebbles. For example, when she misjudged a distance and fell off the balcony and then walked with a limp. I panicked and rushed to the vet. Diagnosis: a torn toenail. Just as much of a hero as her owner, who was suddenly 200 euros poorer.

But that pales in comparison when you look at how expensive it has become to have a baby these days. Raisin (a platform for savings accounts) investigated how expensive it is to have a baby in 2022 and also compares it to how it was twenty years ago. And that's quite a difference, but mainly: having a baby is enormously expensive.

Here are the facts in a row:
– A two-parent family having a baby in 2022 spends an average of €394,866
– A single-parent family having a baby in 2022 spends an average of €339,210
– In 2002, that was €362,006 for a two-parent family
– In 2002, that was €286,601 for a single-parent family

Those are significant differences, especially for single-parent families: a child has become an average of €52,860 more expensive over twenty years. Side note: these amounts are the total costs, so the money you spend on raising your child, but also on buying a bigger house, a bigger car, taking an extra person on vacation, etc. When you add all that up, it's not surprising that it comes to a hefty amount, but still... I expected it to be a bit less high.