The UK family size could be set to shrink as the cost of bringing up a child spirals to more than £270,000.
New research from Aviva suggests that parents will spend £271,499 on each child up to the age of 21. As a result, two thirds (66%) of parents say they can’t afford to have more children – even if they want to – due to the impact of the family on their finances. In fact 58% of parents surveyed with only one child said they are not planning to have any more children.
The Aviva study suggests that some parents will spend, on average, more than £1,000 a month on each of their children.
The research, which was conducted to support Aviva’s latest life insurance advertising campaign, illustrates clearly the pressure families are under in today’s economic climate. While for many the cost of living is rising, more than half of families (51%) report their children are increasingly demanding expensive items, while a similar number feel the need to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ with the latest fads and trends.
Statistics show that the average family size has fallen over the last forty years from 2.0 to 1.7 dependent children per family unit. Even though “2.4 children” is often quoted as the average family size, this figure actually harks back to children of women born in 1937.
One child families have also become more common over the last few decades, accounting for 20% of two-parent families in Britain now, compared to 16% in 1972.
Louise Colley, head of protection marketing for Aviva says: “When we consider bringing up children, people often think about the big ticket items such as university fees or childcare. But it’s also the smaller things such as school trips and music lessons – plus essentials like food and clothes – that really build up the costs. Even for parents who budget very carefully the financial pressures are tremendous, and as Government benefits are being scaled back, more and more families are feeling the pinch.
“At Aviva we want to encourage every parent to make sure their family is financially protected in case the worst happens. If a family loses an income through illness – or even worse, death – by having protection in place it can ease the burden and help some of the ‘normal’ things continue for children, such as swimming lessons and the occasional day out. Having the right cover means that for the families affected, it’s one less thing to worry about at a particularly stressful time.”
Source : Aviva Press Release
