Few of us bother to get out a calculator... if we did, the human race would have died out

Maureen Rice, report author

A report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 1999 found the national average for raising a child to the age of 17 was �50,000.

But the new report, entitled "The Parent Trap" and prepared for The London Magazine, allows for higher London prices for items such as housing and food.

Couples who choose to invest the money as a lump sum instead of having a child would become millionaires within 20 years, the report said.

Alternatively, they could sail around the world on the QE2 eight times or eat at the Ivy restaurant three times a week for the next 20 years.

Without a nanny or private education the figure dropped to �123,329, or �5,872 per year.

Expensive first year

Report author Maureen Rice said: "We all know by now that having children is expensive.

"But few of us bother to get out a calculator before conception and add up exactly how much they cost.

"If we did, the human race would have died out long ago because having children is very, very expensive indeed."

The first year was the most expensive at �25,940, followed by �11,752 per year until the age of five, and �20,260 per year to the age of 11.

Costs then begin to drop to �14,032 per year to the age of 18, and �8,375 per year to reach the end of a university degree.

Ms Rice used figures from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Mintel, Walls Monitor, the Independent Schools Council, Boots, the National Union of Students, the London Au Pair and Nanny Agency, Forme, Bumpsadaisy, the Family Policy Studies Centre, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Henley Centre.