Middle-income parents who welcomed a new child last year can expect to spend nearly $300,000 over the next 17 years, according to a new report.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture prepares an annual report about families' expenditures on children for use in developing state child-support and foster-care guidelines. Annual child-rearing expense estimates ranged between $12,290 and $14,320 for a child in a two-child, married-couple family in the middle-income group, which is defined as a before-tax income between $59,410 and $102,870.

The amount spent on a child by families in the highest income group, on average, was more than twice the amount spent by families in the lowest income group. A child born last year to someone in the lowest income group would cost $212,370 over 17 years, compared to $490,830 for highest earners.

The biggest share of the expense in raising a child, according to the report, is housing at 30%, followed by child-care and education at 18%, food at 16%, transportation at 14% and health care at 8%.

The report has been compiled since 1960, when adjusted for inflation, a middle-income two parent household would have spent around $192,000 over 17 years in 2011 dollars to raise a child. The biggest change over 50 years is the share of expenses going to child-care and education, which was just 2% in 1960.

On a regional basis, it cost the most to raise a child in the urban northeast of the U.S. and least in rural areas of the country.

If you're already balking at the quarter-million dollar price tag, consider this: the report stops at age 17. Parents who send their children to college can add a significant sum to the total. The report notes estimate by the College Board that in 2011-2012, annual average tuition and fees were $28,500 at 4-year private (non-profit) colleges, while annual room and board was $10,089.

Phil Izzo