Survey: Monthly Child-Rearing Expenses Hit Record ¥41,320; Fear that Rising Prices Could Negatively Impact Education

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, October 19, 2024

The monthly cost necessary to raise a child hit a record ¥41,320 on average this year, up ¥1,187 from the previous year, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. announced in its survey on Thursday. About 60% of the respondents feared that rising prices could have a negative impact on education.

According to the survey, 88.7% of the respondents said they felt the financial burden of raising children. This is 2.7 percentage points lower than the previous year. The most common expense they felt as a burden was food at 45%, followed by nursery/kindergarten fees at 40.2% and the cost of extracurricular activities at 36.8%.

The negative effects of rising prices included educational inequality at 22.7%, difficulty in proceeding to further education at 19% and fewer extracurricular activities at 17.9%.

The ideal number of children to have was 2.51 and 62.6% said they did not have their ideal number of children.

The survey was conducted online targeting married men and women with children aged 6 or younger and received responses from 1,100 people.