Excerpt
China is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child, outstripping the US and Japan in relative terms, a prominent Chinese thinktank has said.
A report released on Wednesday by the Beijing-based YuWa Population Research Institute found that the average cost of raising a child in China until the age of 18 is 538,000 yuan (£59,275) – more than 6.3 times as high as its GDP per capita, compared with 4.11 times in the US or 4.26 times in Japan.
For children brought up in Chinese cities, the average cost rises to 667,000 yuan (£73,488).
In Australia, the researchers found that the cost of raising a child was 2.08 times as high as the average GDP per person. China is second only to South Korea – which has the world’s lowest fertility rate.
The report also addressed the opportunity costs, borne mainly by mothers, associated with having children. Between 2010 and 2018, the weekly time spent by parents on helping with their primary school-age children’s homework increased from 3.67 hours to 5.88 hours.
Mothers tend to suffer a loss in paid working hours and in leisure time as a result of raising children. Fathers only experience a loss in leisure time.
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