(NEXSTAR) – Having a child is one of the most exciting and rewarding things that happens in a person’s life. The cute pictures, the fun activities, and watching them grow before your very eyes.

What many don’t talk about, though, is how expensive a child can really be.

The latest report from SmartAsset looked into the annual price parents have to pay for raising a child in every state across the country, and it is not cheap.

On average, raising a child under the age of 5 costs roughly $27,000 a year if you take into account food, transportation, health care, child care and other random items.

The national average saw an increase of 4.5% from last year, says SmartAsset, and that cost and increase is pretty low if you look at a state-by-state basis.

Massachusetts leads the way in terms of cost to raise a child, costing roughly $44,000, up 5.7% from last year, when the state also topped the list.

Not far behind are fellow New England states, Connecticut at $41,808 and Vermont at $38,272. Vermont in particular saw the largest price increase in the country, with the cost to raise a child rising 25.3% from last year.

On the other end of the spectrum, only one state saw the cost to raise a child fall under $20,000: Mississippi, which actually saw roughly a 10% increase from last year.

Here’s the full list of how much it costs to raise a child in each state, according to SmartAsset.

There were also plenty of states that saw the price to raise a child drop significantly since last year, including Hawaii (-19.5%), Delaware (-16.3%), Iowa (-14.2%), and Michigan (-10.5%).