State Purchasing Power Calculator
Estimate an equivalent amount across states using BEA’s regional price parities. Both places use the same year and the same all-items measure.
How the geographic comparison works
Equivalent amount = starting amount × destination price parity ÷ origin price parity. A destination with higher prices requires a larger amount for the measured basket. For example, moving from an index of 90 to an index of 110 scales an amount by 110 ÷ 90, approximately 1.2222. The difference is about 22.22%, not the subtraction of the two index points.
This compares place-specific prices, not inflation over time
Regional price parities set the overall U.S. price level to 100 for each year. An index below 100 indicates a lower measured price level than the national benchmark. Comparing two years’ parities does not supply a state’s inflation rate because the national benchmark also changes. To compare purchasing power across months nationally, use the CPI inflation calculator.
Household budgets and income require additional information
The result is an educational approximation for a broad basket. It does not adjust for a person’s housing arrangement, taxes, commute, insurance or family needs. It is not an official individual cost-of-living estimate, recommended salary or relocation advice. Housing-service prices can differ substantially from the all-items parity shown in the state price-level ranking.
An income adjustment should use income and prices from the same reference year. The latest acquired price year is 2024 even though 2025 income is available. This calculator retains the same-year constraint instead of presenting a mix of those periods as a current official estimate.
Source and reproducibility
BEA SARPP line 1, all-items regional price parities; annual observations 2017–2024; publication February 19, 2026; regional-2026-09-30-reviewed acquisition. Inputs and results are calculated in your browser. Download every source value and the dictionary, or read BEA’s price-parity methodology.