Cost of Living Calculator

U.S. only tools

A pay rise and a move can look like the same decision. They are not: the number in the offer is priced in one place and spent in another, and the difference between two places’ price levels is measurable even when the offer letter is not.

Cost of Living Calculator - Danfio

https://danfio.com/tools/cost-of-living-calculator/ - printed from this page

Currency: USD ($) - display only, nothing was converted

Your pay

Gross or net, as long as you compare the same thing on both sides.

Where you are now

A state or a metro area. Both come from the same BEA table. State names are translated on the Chinese version of this page; metropolitan areas keep their official U.S. English names and state abbreviations (e.g., Abilene, TX) so you can search and verify them directly on maps or rental sites.

Where you are going

Pick one of the other 434 places to compare against. State names are translated on the Chinese version of this page; metropolitan areas keep their official U.S. English names and state abbreviations (e.g., Abilene, TX) so you can search and verify them directly on maps or rental sites.

Results update as you type. Nothing leaves your device.

Currency symbol

Symbol only - nothing is converted and no exchange rate is used. Figures quoted in the explanation text stay as the sources publish them.

Pay that matches $75,000 in Texas

$86,890 in California

BEA’s 2023 price parities put California 15.9% above Texas for the same basket of household spending - $11,890 more on this pay.

Texas index: 97.2
California index: 112.6
Biggest single gap: Housing +60.4 Index points: 97.4 → 157.8
National index: 100 United States, by construction

Where the difference comes from

Spending category	Texas	California	Gap
Housing	97.4	157.8	+60.4
Goods	98.4	107.5	+9.1
Utilities	92.7	142.1	+49.4
Other services	96.4	104.8	+8.4
All items	97.2	112.6	+15.4

Housing is where two places usually differ most, and it is also the part of a budget that is hardest to move: a basket of groceries travels unchanged, a rent does not. Goods prices are the flattest of the four.

The same $75,000 in every state

State	Price index (US = 100)	Pay that matches
California	112.6	$86,890
District of Columbia	110.8	$85,519
New Jersey	108.9	$84,036
Hawaii	108.6	$83,825
Washington	108.6	$83,789
Massachusetts	108.2	$83,538
New York	107.6	$83,066
New Hampshire	105.3	$81,306
Oregon	104.7	$80,824
Maryland	104	$80,241
Connecticut	103.7	$80,028
Florida	103.5	$79,845
Alaska	101.7	$78,504
Rhode Island	101.4	$78,270
Colorado	101.4	$78,247
Arizona	101.1	$78,033
Virginia	100.7	$77,758
Delaware	99.3	$76,604
Illinois	98.9	$76,297
Minnesota	98.4	$75,959
Pennsylvania	97.5	$75,251
Texas	97.2	$75,000
Maine	97.1	$74,940
Nevada	97	$74,849
Georgia	96.7	$74,633
Vermont	96.6	$74,583
Utah	95	$73,323
Michigan	94.2	$72,692
North Carolina	94.1	$72,657
South Carolina	93.2	$71,914
Wisconsin	93.1	$71,853
Tennessee	92.5	$71,403
Indiana	92.2	$71,148
Ohio	91.8	$70,861
Missouri	91.8	$70,822
Idaho	91.4	$70,562
Wyoming	90.8	$70,117
Kentucky	90.5	$69,824
New Mexico	90.4	$69,760
Nebraska	90.4	$69,753
Montana	90.2	$69,651
Alabama	90	$69,439
Kansas	90	$69,435
West Virginia	89.8	$69,286
Iowa	88.8	$68,511
North Dakota	88.6	$68,360
Louisiana	88.3	$68,185
Oklahoma	88.3	$68,139
South Dakota	88.1	$67,992
Mississippi	87.3	$67,372
Arkansas	86.5	$66,767

Ranked from the most expensive state to the cheapest on the all-items index. The headline figure is priced in California, and this column restates the same pay in every state so the ranking can be read down the page. Metro areas are in the two menus above rather than in this table, because 384 more rows would be a page about two places and a directory of 435.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, "Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area", 2023 (United States = 100). Two tables from one official file: 51 jurisdictions (50 states + DC) and 384 metropolitan areas, 435 places in all, all on the same scale. It is imported by scripts/import-rpp.mjs, with that zip's checksum recorded beside the numbers and both tables' national rows checked against each other before the import runs. BEA republishes it every year, and the year is printed on every figure above.

Why there are no Chinese cities here: this page is built on the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis’s regional price parities, where the whole United States is 100. China’s National Bureau of Statistics publishes a consumer price change rate for its cities, not a comparable price level index, and third-party datasets such as Numbeo are anchored on New York = 100 rather than on this table’s scale. Dividing one anchor by another would produce a number that looks precise and means nothing, so this tool stays inside a single publisher’s scale and covers the United States only. A gap in coverage is better than an invented figure - and when a Chinese price-level series is published on a documented, comparable basis, this is where it would be added, with its source printed beside it.

A price index is a basket, not a life. It says nothing about income tax or sales tax, property tax, commuting distance, utility connection rules, rent control, school districts or what a particular neighborhood costs - and the two biggest items in a real move, housing and pay, are usually renegotiated rather than converted. Read the number as "the same spending costs this much more there", then do the budget properly.

JavaScript is off, so the values above are the built-in defaults. Every formula used on this page is documented below, so you can still follow the math by hand.

This calculator restates your pay in another place’s prices. The menus carry 435 places - the 50 states and the District of Columbia, plus 384 metropolitan areas - because BEA publishes both tables in one file, on one scale, where the whole country is 100. The only external numbers on the page are those official parities, the year they describe is printed beside every figure, and the page says what a price index cannot tell you, because the number is about a basket of spending rather than a life.

It covers the United States only, and that is a data decision rather than an oversight: the note beside the answer explains why no Chinese city is in it, and what would have to be true before one could be.

About this cost of living calculator

A cost of living question is usually answered with a rule of thumb - "it is thirty percent cheaper there" - and the purpose of this page is to replace the rule of thumb with the figure statisticians actually publish: the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parity, on a scale where the whole country is 100. The same official file carries two tables, one for the 50 states and DC and one for 384 metropolitan areas, and both are in the menus here because both are on that one scale.

From there the page does one division and prints both sides of it: what your pay is worth in the destination prices, and the percentage gap between the two indices. It does not price income tax, sales tax, insurance, commuting or any particular neighborhood, and it does not forecast next year - the year the indices describe is printed beside every figure on the page. It is also deliberately single-source: no index from a publisher with a different anchor is mixed in, which is why there is no Chinese city in the menus and why the note beside the answer says so.

How this cost of living calculator works

What a regional price parity is

BEA compares what households actually consume - goods, housing, utilities and other services - across states and metropolitan areas, and publishes the result as an index where the United States is 100. A place at 112.6 is about 12.6 percent more expensive than the national average for the same basket; one at 86.5 is about 13.5 percent cheaper.

Because it is an index, the arithmetic between two places is one division: the destination’s index divided by the origin’s. That is the entire calculation here, which is also why the page can be checked by hand - and why the state table and the metro table can be compared with each other at all.

Housing is the part that moves

The four components do not differ by the same amount. Goods prices are the flattest - a television costs roughly what a television costs - while housing is where the states spread out, and utilities are uneven for their own reasons (Hawaii’s utilities index is the highest in the country).

That matters for a decision: the part of a budget that crosses a state line unchanged is the part that does not change, and the part that has to be re-bought - rent, a commute, a school district - is the part an index cannot price for you.

What this cannot tell you

It does not model income tax or sales tax, property tax rates, insurance, commuting costs, utility connection rules, rent control, or what a particular neighborhood costs. Two states with the same index can leave you with very different money, and two cities inside one state can differ by more than the states do.

It also assumes the same spending pattern. If you spend far more of your income on housing than the average household, your personal gap will be wider than the headline number; if you spend far less, narrower. The weights are BEA’s national ones, not yours.

A basket, not a life

The index prices consumption, and a life is more than consumption. Two places with the same index can differ in everything a budget is spent on and everything it is not: a shorter commute, a school that removes the need for a second car, a family nearby who absorb childcare, a climate that changes the utility bill.

That is not a reason to distrust the number, only to read it for what it is - the part of a move that published data can measure. The rest, the rent you actually sign at and the pay you actually earn, is negotiated rather than indexed. An estimate, not a return, and not tax advice.

Worked examples

Each example below was run through the calculator on this page when the site was built, so the numbers match what you see when you enter the same inputs.

$75,000 in Texas, spent in California

Your pay: $75,000.00 · Where you are now: Texas · Where you are going: California

Pay that matches $75,000 in Texas

$86,890 in California

BEA’s 2023 price parities put California 15.9% above Texas for the same basket of household spending - $11,890 more on this pay.

Texas index: 97.2 · California index: 112.6 · Biggest single gap: Housing +60.4 · National index: 100

Two large economies with very different price levels: the same standard of living costs about 16 percent more, and housing is where almost all of that comes from.

$120,000 in California, spent in Arkansas

Your pay: $120,000.00 · Where you are now: California · Where you are going: Arkansas

Pay that matches $120,000 in California

$92,209 in Arkansas

BEA’s 2023 price parities put Arkansas 23.2% below California for the same basket of household spending - $27,791 less on this pay.

California index: 112.6 · Arkansas index: 86.5 · Biggest single gap: Housing -101.2 · National index: 100

The same pay goes further in the other direction, which is what makes this number useful for a remote role on a national salary band.

$100,000 in California, spent in California

Your pay: $100,000.00 · Where you are now: California · Where you are going: California

Result

—

The control case: one state on both sides is a ratio of one, so the gap is zero, the equivalent pay is your own, and every other figure on the page is visibly nothing more than the difference between two published indices.

$100,000 in Arkansas, spent in Texas

Your pay: $100,000.00 · Where you are now: Arkansas · Where you are going: Texas

Pay that matches $100,000 in Arkansas

$112,331 in Texas

BEA’s 2023 price parities put Texas 12.3% above Arkansas for the same basket of household spending - $12,331 more on this pay.

Arkansas index: 86.5 · Texas index: 97.2 · Biggest single gap: Housing +40.8 · National index: 100

Two southern states that both sit below the national 100, so the gap is real but far smaller than a coast-to-coast move - the ratio of the two indices is still the whole calculation.

Frequently asked questions

Which states are the most and least expensive?

On BEA’s 2023 all-items parities, California is the most expensive state (112.581) and Arkansas the least (86.508), with the District of Columbia between them at 110.804. Hawaii is third on the headline index but first on utilities, and Mississippi has the lowest housing index in the country. The ranking changes slowly, but it does change, which is why the year is printed beside every number here.

Should I use gross or net pay?

It does not matter as long as both sides use the same one, because a price index is a ratio: gross against gross and net against net give the same percentage difference. What it cannot do is turn gross into net - income tax, state tax and payroll tax are not part of the index, so a comparison that stops at prices overstates the gain of moving to a state with no income tax and understates it in the other direction.

Why is the percentage the same whatever pay I enter?

Because the index is a ratio and the calculation is linear: the percentage gap between two states does not depend on how much you earn. The dollar figure does, which is why the page restates your own number rather than printing a generic one - and why the same move matters more as the pay rises.

Is there city-level data?

Yes, and it is in the same two menus: 384 metropolitan areas, from BEA’s metropolitan table in the same official file. They sit on exactly the same scale as the states (United States = 100), so a state can be compared with a metro and a metro with another metro. What the page still does not do is price a neighborhood inside a metro - an RPP is one number for a whole metropolitan area, and rents inside one can differ by more than two metros do.

Why are there no Chinese cities?

Because there is no Chinese series on this scale, and mixing scales would be worse than leaving the gap. This page divides one index by another, which only works when both numbers come from the same publisher and the same anchor - here the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, with the whole United States at 100. China’s National Bureau of Statistics publishes a consumer price change rate for its cities, not a comparable price level index, and third-party datasets such as Numbeo are anchored on New York = 100. Dividing a Numbeo index by a BEA index would produce a precise-looking number with no meaning. So the tool stays inside one publisher’s scale, says so here, and would add Chinese cities the day a comparable price-level series is published with a documented basis - not by estimating one.

Does this tell me whether to move?

No. It tells you what the same spending costs elsewhere, which is one input among several - and the two biggest numbers in a real move, the rent you will actually pay and the pay you will actually earn, are negotiated rather than indexed. Use it to see whether an offer keeps you whole on prices, then budget the rest properly.

Does the parity include taxes?

No. A regional price parity prices what households consume - goods, housing, utilities and other services - and stops there. Income tax, sales tax and property tax are not in the index, so a state with no income tax and high sales tax can look cheaper on prices alone than it is in fact, and the reverse holds for low prices with high property taxes. The tax difference has to be added by hand: this page is an estimate from the numbers you enter, not a return and not tax advice.

Assumptions and sources

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, "Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area" - the 2023 state table (51 jurisdictions) and the 2023 metropolitan table (384 areas), both on the same scale where the United States is 100. They are republished each year; the two tables are checked against each other before use, and the year is printed beside every figure.
An RPP is a price index for household consumption, not a cost-of-living budget: it covers goods, housing, utilities and other services, and it uses national expenditure weights rather than any particular household’s spending.
Not modelled here: income tax, state and local sales tax, property tax, insurance, commuting, utility connection rules, rent control, school quality, and every neighborhood-level difference inside a state or a metro area. This is arithmetic on a published index, not financial, tax or relocation advice.

Last reviewed 2026-10-09. An estimate, not a return, and not tax advice. Read the full disclaimer.

Where a figure on this page comes from an official agency — HUD, IRS, FICO or a state body — the site keeps a dated snapshot of the source page in its sources library, and a scheduled job re-checks that snapshot, so the number can be traced back to the document it came from.

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