U.S. State Cost of Living Rankings: Price Parities
Where are consumer price levels lowest? This table orders all 50 states by regional price parity, u.s. = 100, using 2024 observations.
Lowest state price levels in 2024
Arkansas ranks first at 86.937. The last-ranked state is California, at 110.720. Equal displayed values share competition rank; alphabetical order within a tie does not establish a lead. These figures use the same period and definition.
Regional price parities compare average prices across places. They are not CPI inflation, an individual household budget, or a complete relocation cost estimate. The median of the 50 state observations is 96.672; this unweighted state median is not the national rate or total. Annual estimates remain revisable; source publication dates appear in the methodology below.
Complete ranking and historical periods
50 states · 2024 · Regional price parity, U.S. = 100. Lowest values first; ties share a rank.
On narrow screens, scroll the table sideways to read every column.
| Rank | State | Value | Rank one year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arkansas | 86.937 | 2 |
| 2 | Mississippi | 86.953 | 1 |
| 3 | Iowa | 87.762 | 7 |
| 4 | Oklahoma | 87.843 | 5 |
| 5 | Louisiana | 88.207 | 6 |
| 6 | South Dakota | 88.586 | 3 |
| 7 | Alabama | 88.823 | 8 |
| 8 | North Dakota | 88.959 | 4 |
| 9 | West Virginia | 89.497 | 9 |
| 10 | Kansas | 90.068 | 11 |
| 11 | Nebraska | 90.103 | 12 |
| 12 | Kentucky | 90.159 | 10 |
| 13 | Missouri | 90.817 | 15 |
| 14 | Tennessee | 91.870 | 18 |
| 15 | New Mexico | 92.212 | 13 |
| 16 | Wyoming | 92.691 | 16 |
| 17 | Ohio | 92.774 | 17 |
| 18 | Indiana | 93.329 | 19 |
| 19 | South Carolina | 93.749 | 22 |
| 20 | Wisconsin | 94.095 | 21 |
| 21 | North Carolina | 94.326 | 24 |
| 22 | Montana | 94.645 | 14 |
| 23 | Idaho | 95.494 | 20 |
| 24 | Michigan | 96.217 | 23 |
| 25 | Georgia | 96.293 | 26 |
| 26 | Maine | 97.050 | 31 |
| 27 | Texas | 97.057 | 27 |
| 28 | Pennsylvania | 97.572 | 29 |
| 29 | Vermont | 97.958 | 28 |
| 30 | Minnesota | 98.621 | 32 |
| 31 | Utah | 98.864 | 25 |
| 32 | Delaware | 99.808 | 34 |
| 33 | Illinois | 99.958 | 33 |
| 34 | Nevada | 99.979 | 30 |
| 35 | Arizona | 100.677 | 35 |
| 36 | Virginia | 101.104 | 36 |
| 37 | Rhode Island | 102.280 | 38 |
| 38 | Alaska | 102.359 | 39 |
| 39 | Colorado | 103.052 | 37 |
| 40 | Oregon | 103.361 | 43 |
| 41 | Florida | 103.414 | 40 |
| 42 | Connecticut | 103.610 | 41 |
| 43 | New Hampshire | 104.165 | 44 |
| 44 | Maryland | 104.959 | 42 |
| 45 | Massachusetts | 105.757 | 45 |
| 46 | Washington | 107.013 | 47 |
| 47 | New York | 107.921 | 46 |
| 48 | New Jersey | 108.805 | 48 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 109.951 | 49 |
| 50 | California | 110.720 | 50 |
Change period · Download displayed data
District of Columbia: 109.901 regional price parity, u.s. = 100, shown separately and excluded from ranks.
Changing the period updates the table and export. The introductory analysis above concerns 2024. All historical choices use the same acquired revised history.
What changed in the ranking?
Arkansas occupies position 1 in 2024 and occupied position 2 in 2023 within this acquired history. Compare the underlying levels before interpreting movement: other states’ changes can alter a rank even when a state’s own value barely changes. A change in rank is not itself a growth rate, and it cannot establish a policy cause.
Read the index as a price-level comparison
An all-items parity of 90 corresponds to a broad measured price level 10% below the national level in that year. A parity of 110 is 10% above it. Comparing two places requires their ratio: a move from 90 to 110 corresponds to approximately 22.2% higher measured prices, rather than simply a 20% difference.
The index’s national benchmark is renewed for each year. A state can move closer to 100 even when its own prices rise, if national prices rise faster. Change in the parity alone is therefore not the state’s annual inflation rate. The CPI and regional price-parity programs answer different questions.
Housing and the household basket
The all-items measure includes a broad mix of consumer goods and services. The acquired file also supplies a housing-services parity. Those separate values can explain why an apparently inexpensive state can still pose housing-budget difficulties for a particular household.
A housing parity is not the median asking rent, a sale price, a mortgage payment or an official city-by-city housing estimate. Individual households have different housing arrangements and spending weights. The geographic calculator uses the overall index as an educational basket approximation, not a guarantee about a person’s costs.
Match the income year before adjusting purchasing power
The latest price-parity reference year here is 2024, published in February 2026. Annual 2025 income is available in a separate source, but applying 2024 prices to it would mix reference years. Use matching 2024 income when exploring a contemporaneous relationship.
Lower average prices do not imply higher real household income, more job openings or better public services. Pair this ranking with resident income and labor-market measures while keeping each period visible. District of Columbia appears as an unranked comparison because the ranked universe is the 50 states.
Sources, formula and ranking methodology
Measure: BEA SARPP, line 1, all items. Method: Published all-items regional price parity; lower price levels first. 100 is the national price level in the same year. The display and rank use 3 decimal places. Equal values receive competition rank; missing values are omitted from the ranked universe and reported in the table status. Filtering preserves national ranks.
Source file publication: February 19, 2026. Site acquisition: September 30, 2026. The annual GDP/income files contain 2025 observations; the price-parity file contains 2024 observations; labor series contain August 2026. These dates must not be relabeled as one current-month dashboard. Revised estimates in this acquisition are distinct from a historical release-vintage archive.
BEA state GDP methods · BEA state personal income · BEA regional price-parity methods · BLS state employment release and statistical notes · Files, dictionary and source checksums.