Cost of living by state: the cheapest and the most expensive
On the federal price index for 2024, Arkansas is the cheapest state to live in and California is the most expensive. Prices across Arkansas run about 13% cheaper than the rest of the country at an index of 86.9, and prices across California run about 11% dearer than the rest of the country at 110.7, where 100.0 is the national price level for the same basket. That is a spread of 24 points between the ends of the country, and almost all of it is housing: the housing rents component runs from 54.2 in West Virginia to 155.0 in District of Columbia, while goods and other services never move more than about twenty points from one end of the table to the other.
All 50 states and DC, cheapest first
| # | State | All items | Goods | Housing rents | Other services | Against the country | Go deeper |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | 86.9 | 93.6 | 58.2 | 95.3 | 13% cheaper | Payments |
| 2 | Mississippi | 87.0 | 96.2 | 56.5 | 96.1 | 13% cheaper | Payments |
| 3 | Iowa | 87.8 | 93.7 | 65.3 | 92.9 | 12% cheaper | Payments |
| 4 | Oklahoma | 87.8 | 93.8 | 62.8 | 95.5 | 12% cheaper | Payments |
| 5 | Louisiana | 88.2 | 93.7 | 63.1 | 95.7 | 12% cheaper | Payments |
| 6 | South Dakota | 88.6 | 95.5 | 67.6 | 91.9 | 11% cheaper | Payments |
| 7 | Alabama | 88.8 | 96.4 | 61.8 | 96.7 | 11% cheaper | Payments |
| 8 | North Dakota | 89.0 | 95.7 | 71.4 | 91.2 | 11% cheaper | Payments |
| 9 | West Virginia | 89.5 | 96.5 | 54.2 | 99.9 | 11% cheaper | Payments |
| 10 | Kansas | 90.1 | 94.0 | 71.2 | 93.8 | 10% cheaper | Payments |
| 11 | Nebraska | 90.1 | 94.1 | 75.2 | 93.0 | 10% cheaper | Payments |
| 12 | Kentucky | 90.2 | 96.0 | 64.3 | 97.3 | 10% cheaper | Payments |
| 13 | Missouri | 90.8 | 96.3 | 69.9 | 95.2 | 9% cheaper | Payments |
| 14 | Tennessee | 91.9 | 96.2 | 79.1 | 95.1 | 8% cheaper | Payments |
| 15 | New Mexico | 92.2 | 96.1 | 73.6 | 98.5 | 8% cheaper | Payments |
| 16 | Wyoming | 92.7 | 95.4 | 71.1 | 100.4 | 7% cheaper | Payments |
| 17 | Ohio | 92.8 | 93.7 | 73.0 | 98.9 | 7% cheaper | Payments |
| 18 | Indiana | 93.3 | 95.5 | 73.9 | 99.1 | 7% cheaper | Payments |
| 19 | South Carolina | 93.7 | 96.3 | 80.5 | 98.3 | 6% cheaper | Payments |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 94.1 | 94.3 | 79.3 | 99.5 | 6% cheaper | Payments |
| 21 | North Carolina | 94.3 | 96.6 | 81.4 | 98.2 | 6% cheaper | Payments |
| 22 | Montana | 94.6 | 96.0 | 84.6 | 98.7 | 5% cheaper | Payments |
| 23 | Idaho | 95.5 | 96.3 | 90.0 | 99.0 | 5% cheaper | Payments |
| 24 | Michigan | 96.2 | 96.0 | 82.3 | 100.9 | 4% cheaper | Payments |
| 25 | Georgia | 96.3 | 98.9 | 88.7 | 97.3 | 4% cheaper | Payments |
| 26 | Maine | 97.0 | 97.2 | 78.9 | 103.2 | 3% cheaper | Payments |
| 27 | Texas | 97.1 | 98.1 | 96.5 | 97.1 | 3% cheaper | Payments |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 97.6 | 99.4 | 85.1 | 99.8 | 2% cheaper | Payments |
| 29 | Vermont | 98.0 | 97.3 | 86.5 | 101.6 | 2% cheaper | Payments |
| 30 | Minnesota | 98.6 | 100.5 | 91.3 | 100.2 | 1% cheaper | Payments |
| 31 | Utah | 98.9 | 96.4 | 107.8 | 99.0 | 1% cheaper | Payments |
| 32 | Delaware | 99.8 | 96.2 | 102.0 | 101.2 | national average | Payments |
| 33 | Illinois | 100.0 | 103.8 | 93.9 | 100.2 | national average | Payments |
| 34 | Nevada | 100.0 | 96.3 | 114.1 | 98.7 | national average | Payments · Las Vegas |
| 35 | Arizona | 100.7 | 95.4 | 106.8 | 102.8 | 1% dearer | Payments |
| 36 | Virginia | 101.1 | 100.4 | 106.8 | 100.2 | 1% dearer | Payments |
| 37 | Rhode Island | 102.3 | 97.2 | 105.6 | 102.8 | 2% dearer | Payments |
| 38 | Alaska | 102.4 | 106.3 | 93.8 | 102.2 | 2% dearer | Payments |
| 39 | Colorado | 103.1 | 98.7 | 127.4 | 99.6 | 3% dearer | Payments |
| 40 | Oregon | 103.4 | 105.3 | 108.6 | 100.3 | 3% dearer | Payments |
| 41 | Florida | 103.4 | 98.1 | 122.1 | 101.3 | 3% dearer | Payments |
| 42 | Connecticut | 103.6 | 97.3 | 117.0 | 102.7 | 4% dearer | Payments |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 104.2 | 98.6 | 114.9 | 103.9 | 4% dearer | Payments |
| 44 | Maryland | 105.0 | 102.5 | 121.1 | 101.6 | 5% dearer | Payments |
| 45 | Massachusetts | 105.8 | 98.8 | 128.1 | 102.9 | 6% dearer | Payments |
| 46 | Washington | 107.0 | 104.4 | 126.0 | 103.9 | 7% dearer | Payments |
| 47 | New York | 107.9 | 107.3 | 122.2 | 104.1 | 8% dearer | Payments |
| 48 | New Jersey | 108.8 | 107.1 | 134.3 | 103.5 | 9% dearer | Payments |
| 49 | District of Columbia | 109.9 | 106.5 | 155.0 | 103.0 | 10% dearer | Payments |
| 50 | Hawaii | 110.0 | 111.6 | 125.3 | 102.9 | 10% dearer | Payments |
| 51 | California | 110.7 | 106.1 | 154.3 | 102.6 | 11% dearer | Payments |
The ten cheapest and ten dearest states for housing rents
This is the component that decides where a state lands. The other two barely move, so the housing column is worth reading on its own.
| End of the table | State | Housing rents | Against the country | All items | Rank on all items |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest | West Virginia | 54.2 | 46% cheaper | 89.5 | 9 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Mississippi | 56.5 | 44% cheaper | 87.0 | 2 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Arkansas | 58.2 | 42% cheaper | 86.9 | 1 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Alabama | 61.8 | 38% cheaper | 88.8 | 7 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Oklahoma | 62.8 | 37% cheaper | 87.8 | 4 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Louisiana | 63.1 | 37% cheaper | 88.2 | 5 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Kentucky | 64.3 | 36% cheaper | 90.2 | 12 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Iowa | 65.3 | 35% cheaper | 87.8 | 3 of 51 |
| Cheapest | South Dakota | 67.6 | 32% cheaper | 88.6 | 6 of 51 |
| Cheapest | Missouri | 69.9 | 30% cheaper | 90.8 | 13 of 51 |
| Dearest | District of Columbia | 155.0 | 55% dearer | 109.9 | 49 of 51 |
| Dearest | California | 154.3 | 54% dearer | 110.7 | 51 of 51 |
| Dearest | New Jersey | 134.3 | 34% dearer | 108.8 | 48 of 51 |
| Dearest | Massachusetts | 128.1 | 28% dearer | 105.8 | 45 of 51 |
| Dearest | Colorado | 127.4 | 27% dearer | 103.1 | 39 of 51 |
| Dearest | Washington | 126.0 | 26% dearer | 107.0 | 46 of 51 |
| Dearest | Hawaii | 125.3 | 25% dearer | 110.0 | 50 of 51 |
| Dearest | New York | 122.2 | 22% dearer | 107.9 | 47 of 51 |
| Dearest | Florida | 122.1 | 22% dearer | 103.4 | 41 of 51 |
| Dearest | Maryland | 121.1 | 21% dearer | 105.0 | 44 of 51 |
What a regional price parity is, and what it is not
A regional price parity is an index of price levels. It answers one question: what does the same basket of goods and services cost here, compared with what it costs across the country in the same year? The national average is fixed at 100.0 by construction, so Arkansas at 86.9 is about 13% cheaper than the rest of the country and California at 110.7 is about 11% dearer than the rest of the country. The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes it annually, per state and per metro area, out of the same collected prices the Consumer Price Index is built on.
Four things it is not. It is not a dollar figure: there is no monthly total in it and no household budget behind it, so an index of 110 does not mean anyone spends $110 on anything. It is not an income statement: it carries no wages, and wages tend to move with local prices, which is a large part of why the spread exists at all. It carries no tax, of any kind, which catches people comparing a state with no income tax against one with a high one. And it is annual, so the newest year published is 2024 while rents and asking prices have moved since.
The last one is worth stating plainly because the index is often quoted as though it were a bill. It is a ratio between two price levels. Read it as "prices here run about X percent above or below the rest of the country" and it is exactly right. Read it as a cost and it is not a cost of anything.
Why housing is most of the gap
BEA splits the basket into three parts, and the three behave nothing like each other. Across all 51 jurisdictions the goods component spans about eighteen points and other services span about thirteen. Housing rents span more than a hundred, from 54.2 in West Virginia to 155.0 in District of Columbia. A gallon of milk, a pair of shoes and a haircut cost roughly the same everywhere in the United States. A place to live does not.
That is why the ranking above is close to a ranking of housing costs wearing a different name, and why the second table exists. It is also why a headline near 100 can hide a housing figure that is nowhere near it. Nevada is the clean example: its all-items index sits within a rounding error of the national level, which reads as an unremarkable state, while its housing rents component sits well above it. The average is the least interesting number in the row.
Note what BEA means by housing. It prices shelter as rent, including an imputed rent for owned homes, not as a mortgage payment. So the whole cost side of buying, the rate, the insurance, the property tax, the maintenance, is outside this index. Two states with identical housing components can be very different places to buy in. The rent versus buy calculator is the arithmetic that index cannot do for you.
What "cheapest state" hides
A state is not a place anyone lives. It is an average over a metro area and everywhere that is not one, and those two are often further apart than the states at either end of this table. A state can rank cheap on the strength of its rural counties while its one large metro prices like a coastal city, and a household moving there for the ranking lands in the metro.
This is why BEA publishes metro parities as well, and why our own city cost-of-living pages lead with the metro figure rather than the state one. If you are actually choosing where to move, the state row is the wrong resolution: find the metro. The state row is useful for the comparison people usually mean when they ask, which is one whole state against another.
The District of Columbia is in the table because BEA publishes it as a jurisdiction, but it is a single dense city with no countryside to average against, which is most of why it sits where it does. Compare it with a metro area, not with a state.
How this differs from the indexes publishers sell
Search for a cost-of-living index and most of what comes back is a private product: a chamber-of-commerce index, a relocation firm's calculator, a crowdsourced site. Those are built on their own baskets, their own collected prices and their own weights, usually licensed rather than free, and several of them set the national average somewhere other than 100. Their numbers and BEA's are not interchangeable, and a comparison that mixes the two is not a comparison.
We publish BEA's because it is the only full-basket figure that is in the public domain, documented, citable and free to reproduce. It is also the figure a federal agency will still be publishing next year, which matters for a page meant to be a reference. What we add is the reading: the same index, ranked, with the components broken out, and every percentage on the page generated from one function so no two sentences on this site can round it differently.
Questions people ask
What state has the lowest cost of living?
Arkansas, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for 2024. Its all-items index is 86.9, where 100.0 is the national price level, so prices there run about 13% cheaper than the rest of the country. Mississippi is 0.016 points behind it, which is closer than an annual index can distinguish, so read the two as tied.
What state has the highest cost of living?
California, at 110.7, which is about 11% dearer than the rest of the country. Hawaii and District of Columbia are within a point of it. The District of Columbia is in this table as a jurisdiction; it is a single city, so it is not really comparable with a state that contains both cities and countryside.
Is this the same as a cost-of-living index from a private publisher?
No. A regional price parity is a federal statistic, published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis from the price data the Consumer Price Index is built on, in the public domain, with a documented method. The indexes sold by publishers are built from their own baskets and their own collected prices, are usually licensed rather than free, and put the national average at a different place. The numbers are not interchangeable and should not be mixed in one comparison.
Does a low cost of living mean I will have more money left over?
Not on its own. The index prices a basket of goods and services. It carries no income, no income tax, no property tax and no sales tax, and wages tend to track local prices, which is much of why the index differs between states in the first place. A cheap state on this table with a job that pays proportionally less is not a raise.
Why does the index not match what I pay in rent?
Two reasons. It is a state average, so it blends a state's expensive metro with everywhere else in it, and most people live in one or the other rather than in the average. And it is an index of price levels rather than a dollar figure: a housing rents index of 120 means rents in that state run about a fifth above the national level for comparable housing, not that anyone pays $120 for anything. The newest year published is 2024.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities by State and Metropolitan Area, 2024, read through the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis's FRED mirror of the same series. Public domain federal statistics; neither agency endorses this page. The ranking, the component tables and the percentages are computed by Kouzr from those figures and nothing else. An index of price levels, not a budget: it contains no income, no tax and no mortgage, and it is not financial advice. How these numbers are made.