If you think the cost of rearing a child is expensive, you’re right.

A new government report says child-rearing has increased 23 percent since 1960 even adjusted for inflation. A lot of, the reason has to do with more expensive housing as well as higher costs for health care and child care.

Parents with a baby born in 2012 will spend $217,000 to half a million dollars to raise the child to age 18, not including the cost of college, according to statistics out this week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The exact amount families spend varies depending on income.

Child-rearing expenditures included the usual suspects: housing, food, transportation, clothing, health care, child care and education.

“Although children can be a great joy, they are costly and consume a large part of the family budget,” says the study’s author Mark Lino, a USDA economist. He says that other research has found that the indirect costs of rearing a child are even higher than the direct expenses outlined in this report.

The amount spent on raising a child varies by household income. Husband-wife families with annual before-tax incomes of more than $105,000 in 2012 will spend a whopping $501,250 to raise a child born in 2012 to age 18.

Parents with before-tax annual incomes of $60,640 to $105,000, considered the middle-range income group for this analysis, will spend about $301,970. Those with before-tax incomes of less than $60,640 a year will spend $216,910 to rear a child.

The reasons for the increase: Housing expenses for children increased because of larger homes with more bathrooms, Lino says.

“Also, parents are covering a larger proportion of children’s health-care costs with higher co-payments and premiums than in 1960. In addition, child care is a major new expense many families did not face in 1960, he said.”

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