China is one of the costliest places in the world to raise a child

China is one of the most expensive places in the world to raise a child in relative terms, a new report said, with the disproportionate impact on women driving the country’s precipitously low fertility rate as it grapples with a demographic crisis.

The study by the China-based YuWa Population Research Institute found that the average nationwide cost of raising a child from birth to age



17 was about $74,800 – rising to more than $94,500 to support a child through a bachelor’s degree, CNN reported.

The cost of raising a child to age 18 in China is 6.3 times higher than the country’s GDP per capita, the report said – a ratio second only to South Korea, which has the world’s lowest fertility rate, and where the cost of child-rearing is 7.79 times the GDP per capita