Comparison Methodology

The state table

Each row subtracts second state from first state in the measure’s own unit. Dollar differences remain dollars; an index-point difference remains index points. The table does not add home values, monthly rents, annual incomes and price levels into an unsupported score. On the board, the first state sits in the cool field and the second in the warm field; the bar on the centre spine grows toward whichever side has the higher value, and its length is the gap as a share of the larger value, drawn full at 60% or more. Neither colour means better: a higher income median describes population income rather than a guaranteed job offer, and a higher price level is simply higher prices.

The price-level scenario

Destination monthly scenario = origin entered consumption × destination all-items BEA price parity ÷ origin parity. With indices of 100 and 110, the ratio is 1.10. This measures a broad hypothetical change in consumption cost. It does not recommend a wage, forecast individual invoices or adjust a prepared tax return.

The prepared household budget

Monthly recurring cost = entered housing + entered other costs. Annual resources remaining = entered net annual income − 12 × monthly recurring cost. Annual resource change = destination remaining resources − origin remaining resources. First-year change subtracts separately entered relocation cash expense. Prepared net income must already reflect approved taxes and consistent benefit treatment; withholding is not an additional tax deduction.

Amounts are non-negative inputs, but differences and remaining resources can be negative. Missing amounts remain unknown. Selecting a different state clears that side’s prepared quotes and the previous relocation expense to avoid assigning one address’s amounts to another. Sharing preserves inputs in the URL fragment; it does not create a separate indexable comparison URL.

Periods and statistical uncertainty

BEA indices describe 2024. Census five-year estimates pool 2020–2024 and display published 90% margins of error. State ranks use the unrounded point estimates among all 50 states and DC (51 jurisdictions), excluding Puerto Rico. An order in that ranking is not a claim of statistical significance. BEA does not supply matching Census margins in the SARPP download.

A median home value, a median rent and a median household income describe different populations. Their combination cannot establish the affordability of the same household. Historical property-tax dollars are not local statutory rates. Address quotes and the actual compensation offer remain necessary for a personal decision.

Category price parities and real income

State and pair pages break the all-items parity into BEA's four published spending categories: goods, housing (rents), utilities and other services. Each category parity compares the state's prices for that category with the national level for the same year, where U.S.=100. A parity of 114 for housing means rents about 14% above the national level; it says nothing about a particular listing. Ranks order the 50 states and DC from lowest to highest parity, with ties sharing the lower rank.

BEA does not publish the category spending weights state by state alongside the parities, so the pages report category gaps side by side rather than claiming how many index points of the all-items gap each category contributes. "Largest category gap" means the largest absolute difference between two category parities. BEA publishes parities to three decimals without margins of error, so a category gap smaller than 0.1 index point is described as level rather than naming a lower-priced state.

The five-year trend lines compare a state's 2020 and 2024 all-items parities from the same revised BEA series. Because each year is measured against that year's national level, a change describes relative position, not inflation.

State pages list bordering jurisdictions (shared land, river or bay boundaries; single-point corners such as Four Corners are not borders). Alaska and Hawaii, which have no bordering state, list the five jurisdictions with the nearest all-items parity instead. Income-tax, sales-tax and cross-border notes appear only where a constitution, statute, legislative report or revenue-agency page was read on the stated date; a state without a note is not being described as having or lacking that tax. Pair pages show a one-line summary that links to the full sourced note on the state page.

Real per capita personal income comes from BEA table SARPI, line 2: personal income divided by the state's price parity and the national PCE price index, in constant 2017 dollars, then divided by midyear population. It already reflects each state's price level, so it should not be adjusted by the parity a second time. It is an average across all residents, including non-wage income, and is not a household median, a salary offer or take-home pay.

Owner costs and rent burden

State pages add three ACS 2020–2024 measures with their published 90% margins: median selected monthly owner costs for homes with a mortgage and without one (B25088), which include mortgage payments, real estate taxes, insurance, utilities and fuels, and median gross rent as a percentage of household income (B25071). Ranks order the 51 jurisdictions from highest to lowest point estimate and do not establish statistical significance.

State tax collections

State and pair pages show each state government's fiscal 2025 tax collections from the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State Government Tax Collections, grouped by the survey's item codes: individual income (T40), general sales and gross receipts (T09), property (T01), motor fuel (T13), other selective sales such as alcohol, tobacco, insurance premiums, utilities, amusements and sports betting (T10–T19), licenses including motor vehicle licenses (T20–T29), corporate net income (T41), severance (T53), and death and gift, documentary and other taxes (T50, T51, T99). "Not levied" marks a category the survey records as not applicable to that state, which is different from a published zero.

These are state-government collections only. City, county and school-district taxes, including most property taxes and local sales taxes, are excluded. Fiscal years end June 30 except in New York (March 31), Texas (August 31), Alabama and Michigan (September 30). Per-resident amounts divide collections by the Census Bureau's July 1, 2025 population estimate.

The Census Bureau cautions that per-capita collections are not a measure of the tax burden on residents: a state can collect taxes from visitors and businesses, such as Florida's sales tax on tourist spending or Alaska's severance taxes on oil and gas production. Read the table as how each state government raises money, not as a household tax bill.

Primary sources and exact table fields · Compare two states