This One Chart Shows Why Having Children Is Becoming So Expensive

In August, the US Agriculture Department estimated that having and raising a child in America costs over $245,000.

You could argue that the steadily rising price tag is due to the violin lessons, summer camps, and organic cheese sticks that seem to have become mandatory in recent years, but a chart from the Brookings Institution boils the rise down to one thing in particular: the disproportionate cost of childcare and tuition as it relates to US median income.

Researchers compiled data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Price Index to create the chart below, which illustrates the alarming rate at which two of parents' biggest costs - childcare and tuition - are increasing. We first came across it over at Jezebel.

The researchers write (bolding ours):

The prices of a number of goods and services have outpaced median income. For example, the price of hospital services and childcare and tuition has grown by an astounding 200% faster than median wage.

Here's what that looks like: