Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Relative Cost of Living

The Bureau of Economic Analysis (an arm of the Fed) publishes Regional Price Parities (RPPs), which enable the comparison of the cost of living at the state level. RPPs measure the differences in the price levels of goods and services across states and metropolitan areas for a given year. They are expressed as a percentage of the overall national price level for each year, so RPPs higher than 100 represent state prices higher than the national average and vice versa. Here are the states with a higher cost of living than the national average:

Hawaii 118.8  
District of Columbia 117.0 
New York 115.3 
California 113.4 
New Jersey 113.4

And here are the lowest:

Mississippi 86.2 
Alabama 86.8 
Arkansas 87.4 
South Dakota 88.2 
Kentucky 88.6

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