The soaring cost of prom: By the numbers

"Prom is the new wedding" — at least when it comes to the price tag, says Hadley Malcolm in USA Today. Combine increasingly obsessive helicopter parenting, teens' rising red-carpet worship and Facebook narcissism, and the decline of debutante and other coming-out balls in the South and Northeast, and the springtime high school dance is becoming extremely expensive. "This is social-arms-race spending," says Jason Alderman at Visa, which recently released a new survey of prom spending. Here, a look at some of the eye-popping numbers:

$1,078

Amount the average family with teenagers will spend on prom this year

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33.6

Percent increase over the $807 the average family spent last year

61

Percent of the costs parents will cover

39

Percent covered by the kids. Because parents pick up most of the tab, teens lack the "incentive to economize," which is "one of the reasons that prom spending may be running amok," says Visa's Alderman.

$20 to $250

Cost of prom tickets, depending largely on location, according to PromGirl.com

$25 to $130

Pre-prom dinner, per person

$30 to $275

Hair, makeup, and nails

$30 to $125

Prom photos, per person

$200 to $500

Limo rental, split among all riders

$100 to $400

Average prom dress purchase, with plenty of families spending much more

$1,200

Prom spending by families earning less than $20,000 a year

$842

Prom spending by families earning more than $75,000 a year

$695

Prom spending by families earning $40,000-$49,999 a year

$2,635

Prom spending by families earning $20,000-$29,999 a year

$23,050

The federal poverty level for a family of four

$1,944

What the average Northeastern family will spend on prom

$1,047

What the average Southern family will spend on prom

$744

What the average Western family will spend on prom

$696

What the average Midwestern family will spend on prom

Sources: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, USA Today, Visa/PR Newswire