Common questions
What is the cheapest state to live in?
Arkansas has the lowest overall price level of the 50 states, at 86.9 (U.S. = 100).
What is the most expensive state to live in?
California has the highest overall price level, at 110.7 (U.S. = 100).
Does a low cost of living mean a state is affordable?
Not on its own, because incomes differ too. The price-adjusted household income ranking divides each state’s median income by its price level.
What this ranking measures
Regional price parity measures geographic price levels in 2024 relative to the national level of 100. An index of 110 means prices are 10 percent above the national level for the specified basket.
This is a geographic price-level index, not a household budget or the inflation rate. State averages conceal local variation. Historical index changes describe prices relative to the nation, not absolute inflation.
The size of the gap
The difference between the highest and lowest state estimates is 23.8. The U.S. benchmark is 100.0. It is not a simple average of the states.
16 states have point estimates above the U.S. benchmark and 34 below it. These counts do not establish statistical significance.
How much should you read into a rank?
BEA does not publish margins of error for price parities, and our price adjustment does not combine the uncertainty of its two inputs. “Not published” means uncertainty is not quantified here, not that the estimates are exact.
Ranks use the full precision of the source file, so only truly equal values share a rank (1, 2, 2, 4).
Keep exploring
Why prices, housing spending and burden produce different state orders.
Explore the same states in a side-by-side comparison, or combine this measure with others in the custom ranking tool.
Source and method
- Producer
- U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
- Product / file
- Regional Price Parities · SARPP line 1
- Period
- 2024
- Unit
- Index, U.S. = 100
- Calculation
- Published index; U.S. price level = 100. Rank = 1 + number of eligible jurisdictions with a higher value.
- Coverage
- The 50 states are ranked. Washington, D.C., can be added with the toggle above the table; Puerto Rico is shown for reference only, where the source covers it.
- Cadence
- Annual. December 10, 2026, subject to the BEA release schedule.
- Independence
- Rank the States is independent. The agencies that produce the source data do not endorse these rankings.
Download, cite, or embed
Download the default full table (CSV) or use the download above for the table’s current filter and order. Data dictionary and source metadata
Updates and corrections
Last updated Oct. 23, 2026. Earlier editions stay available on the data page, and every change is listed in the update log. If a number or definition looks wrong, report an error with the state, value, and source you checked.