What your paycheck is worth in a small town
Pick your metro area and a state. The calculator compares typical prices in your city with the rural part of that state, using the federal government’s own numbers.
How to read this
The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures how much more or less the same goods and services cost in each part of the country. A score of 110, for example, means prices about 10% above the national average, and 90 means about 10% below.
The first number above takes your income and asks what it would buy at rural prices. Dallas-Fort Worth scores 103.1 and rural Texas scores 87.8, so $75,000 spent at rural Texas prices goes about as far as $88,100 would in Dallas-Fort Worth. That is the effect the book describes when it says a city salary goes much further in a small town.
- "Rural" here means every part of the state outside a metro area, from farm country to resort towns. A popular tourist town can cost far more than the average.
- These are prices only. Taxes, wages and insurance aren't included, and a new job in a small town may pay less than the one you have.
- Delaware, District of Columbia, New Jersey, Rhode Island have no rural portion in the data, so they aren't in the list.
Want the rest of the picture? The money step of the guide covers what changes when you move, and the free book has the details from two families who did it.