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Estimated costs of child-rearing in China
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A family in Beijing. Education is seen by parents as a ticket to a better life, but it may be getting harder to stand out with a university degree in China. Record numbers have graduated even as the number of new urban jobs falls.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
BEIJING - The high cost of raising a child in China is commonly cited as a reason for couples not having more than one child in the world's second-largest economy, despite the country's gradual loosening of birth controls.
According to a conservative estimate by Associate Professor Ma Chunhua at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the amount needed to raise a child from birth to age 17 in the city is 273,200 yuan (S$56,650), after adjusting for inflation.
