Many parents are aware that having children is bad for your bank balance but half say that bringing up their offspring is more expensive then they expected it to be, a new survey claims.

Raising a child from birth to adulthood comes in at £43,056 with 16-year-olds proving the most expensive to run, according to research from Maestro and Family Circle magazine.

The average 16-year-old costs £64 a week with some £22 going on food, £14 a week on entertainment and after-school activities, £9 a week on pocket money and £7 a week on clothes.

At the other end of the age range, babies may be high-maintenance but they are the cheapest to run, costing around £40 a week in their first year of life.

But parents in Britain spend significantly more on raising their offspring than their European counterparts - some 30 per cent more than parents in France and 25 per cent more than in Sweden.

And even when children have reached adulthood, parents still expect to be helping them get on their feet in the adult world.

Seven out of ten believe they will put money towards their child's first car, eight out of ten will contribute towards university and almost half will put their hand in their pocket to get their children onto the property ladder.

Nigel Turner, the marketing director at Maestro UK, said: "It is clear that raising children is a costly business, but we feel that many parents may not be aware of just how costly it is.

"The total cost of raising a child is almost twice the national average household's take- home pay, meaning workers in the average family will spend two years working to cover the cost of each child."