The annual cost of raising a child in Britain can be almost £3,000, according to a survey, and that does not include the cost of any private education.

That amounts to some £50,000 by the time a child is seventeen.

The survey by the online bank Egg says that excluding education costs, parents spend £2,916 per year raising a girl. But boys are a little cheaper at £2,790 per annum.

What's more, many parents go on providing substantial financial support for their offspring into their middle age and beyond.

The research findings also found that some 631,000 children are provided with significant financial support from their parents, despite being aged 30 or older. Some 148,000 of these ‘apronstringers’ were aged 44 or over.

Excluding the cost of education, a typical parent in full-time work will use over 14 percent of their annual income simply raising their child. This rises to 55 percent if they send them to a private school.

Despite this significant cost, one in five families with children do not have any form of life assurance, points out Egg.

The findings have also highlighted around 178,000 ‘Mass Affluent Kids’ – or MAKs - who are characterised as having a budget of £20,000 or more a year for holidays, clothes, pocket money, hobbies and school trips. Incredibly, parents of some 18,000 super rich kids spend a staggering £50,000 a year on these items for their children, equating to £850,000 each over the course of their childhood.