How the state ranking works
The table above ranks every state by its all-items Regional Price Parity — a BEA index expressed as a percentage of the national average (100). A state at 110 means prices there run about 10% above the national average, factoring in housing, goods, utilities, and other everyday spending together, weighted the way an actual consumer basket is weighted rather than a simple average of unrelated categories.
Rankings compress a lot of variation
A single statewide number hides real variation within a state — a state's largest metro area often runs meaningfully above or below the state's own average, since state figures blend expensive urban cores with cheaper rural counties. If you're comparing specific cities rather than whole states, the metro-area comparison gives you a narrower, more precise figure.
What the ranking doesn't capture
This ranking says nothing about job availability, salary levels, climate, or quality of life — purely relative prices for the same basket of goods and services. A cheaper state on this list isn't automatically a better place to live; it's simply a place where a given amount of money buys more. Pair this ranking with the calculator above to see what a specific salary is actually worth moving between any two states on the list.
Frequently asked questions
Which state has the highest cost of living?
Based on 2024 BEA data, California, Hawaii, and New Jersey carry the three highest all-items cost-of-living indices among the 50 states, with the District of Columbia also running well above the national average. See the full ranked table above for exact index values.
Which state has the lowest cost of living?
Arkansas, Mississippi, Iowa, and Oklahoma sit at the bottom of the 2024 ranking, all running meaningfully below the national average of 100. The table above ranks all 51 (50 states + DC) from highest to lowest.
How is each state's index calculated?
BEA's Regional Price Parities combine price data from roughly 170 spending categories — apparel, food, housing, medical care, transportation, and more — into a single index per state, expressed as a percentage of the national average (100). A state at 110 runs about 10% above the national average; one at 90 runs about 10% below.
Does this ranking account for taxes?
No. This is a pre-tax cost-of-living ranking based on prices for goods, services, and rent — it does not include state or local income, sales, or property tax differences, which vary independently and are a separate factor in any relocation decision.
How often is this ranking updated?
BEA publishes Regional Price Parities annually. This page uses the 2024 vintage, released February 19, 2026; the next release (2025 data) is scheduled for December 10, 2026.
Worked examples
Highest to lowest
California (highest-ranked large state) to Mississippi (lowest-ranked).
Mississippi runs 21.5% cheaper than California overall — a $100,000 salary there carries about the same purchasing power as $78,534 in California.
Two similarly-ranked states
Iowa and Oklahoma sit within a fraction of a percent of each other in 2024.
Iowa and Oklahoma run about the same in overall cost of living — close enough that other factors (job market, taxes, climate) likely matter more for a decision between them.
What affects the result
Population-weighted vs. simple averages
The national baseline (100) is a population-weighted average across all consumers, not a simple average of the 51 states. Large, expensive states pull the weighted baseline up relative to an unweighted average of all states, which is why more states sit below 100 than above it.
Housing weight in the overall index
Housing is typically the largest single driver of a state's overall index — a state with moderate goods and services prices but very high rents can still rank high overall, and vice versa.
Common mistakes to avoid
- ✗Treating a statewide ranking as accurate for a specific city — a state's largest metro often runs well above or below the state's own average.
- ✗Comparing rankings across different bases (all-items vs rents) without checking which one is being shown — they can produce different rankings entirely.
- ✗Assuming the cheapest-ranked state is automatically the best financial choice — it says nothing about local salaries or job availability.
Practical takeaways
- ✓Use the state ranking as a starting point, then narrow to metro-area data for a specific city before making a decision.
- ✓Check both the all-items and rents bases separately if housing cost is your main concern — they can tell different stories.
- ✓Combine the ranking with actual local salary research — a lower cost of living only helps if pay does not fall by more.
Key terms
- Regional Price Parity (RPP)
- A BEA index measuring how price levels for the same mix of goods, services, and rent differ across US states and metro areas, expressed as a percentage of the national average (100). An RPP of 110 means prices there run about 10% above the national average; 90 means about 10% below.
- All-items basis
- The overall cost-of-living index — a weighted composite covering housing, goods, utilities, and other services. This is the default, whole-basket comparison.
- Rents basis
- A narrower index covering only tenant rents and an imputed owner-equivalent rent value — not a homeowner's actual housing cost (mortgage, property tax, insurance). See the model assumptions for the full disclosure.
More questions answered
Are Alaska and Hawaii included in this ranking?
Yes — all 50 states plus the District of Columbia are included in the table above, ranked by their 2024 all-items index.
Why does the national average show as exactly 100?
By BEA's own methodology, the all-items national composite is defined as exactly 100 — every state and metro area's index is calculated relative to that national reference point.
Model assumptions & disclosures
Source: BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024 vintage. Every figure on this page comes from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis's Regional Price Parities (state table SARPP, metro table MARPP), released February 19, 2026. This is the same government data behind BEA's own real personal income statistics — not a third-party cost-of-living estimate. BEA's next release (the 2025 vintage) is scheduled for December 10, 2026; figures here will not reflect that update until this site's data is regenerated afterward.
Pre-tax — state and local income tax are not modeled. Regional Price Parities measure differences in the price of goods, services, and rent across places. They say nothing about what you'd actually keep after state or local income tax, sales tax, or property tax — all of which vary independently of cost of living and are real, separate factors in any relocation or job-offer decision.
The "Rent only" basis is a renters' index, not a homeowner's housing cost. BEA defines this series specifically: rents RPPs are estimated only for observed tenants' actual rents and an imputed rental-equivalent value for owner-occupied homes — they do not include a homeowner's own mortgage payment, property tax, insurance, or maintenance costs. If you own your home, switching to "Rent only" shows what a tenant pays in each place, not your own housing expense — it is never a stand-in for "housing costs" broadly.
Metro-area rents are a 3-year average, not a single-year snapshot. BEA estimates state-level rents from a single year of Census American Community Survey (ACS) data, but metro-area rents from a smoothed 3-year ACS average — metro areas are smaller geographies and need the extra years of data for a reliable sample. That smoothing is real: Coeur d'Alene, ID's metro rents index moved from 99.7 to 117.2 and back to 105.6 across the three years folded into the 2024 figure alone. A metro rents number is a multi-year average, not "as of 2024" the way the all-items and state figures are.
Not financial advice. This calculator provides an estimate to help you plan a comparison, not a guarantee of what you'd actually pay or earn in either place. Combine it with your own research — including actual job offers, tax rates, and cost quotes for your specific situation — before making a relocation or compensation decision.