This Is The State With The Lowest Cost Of Living

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Jan 23, 9:33AM EST

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This Is The State With The Lowest Cost Of Living — © SeanPavonePhoto / iStock via Getty Images

Americans face a dilemma. The Consumer Price Index rose 7% in December. While wages have risen recently, they have not, for the most part, kept up with inflation. The median household income in the U.S. dropped 2.9% in 2020 to $67,521. In a recent article, a reporter from The New York Times wrote: “Only 17 percent of workers say they have received raises that kept up with inflation over the past year, according to a survey of 5,365 adults conducted last month…”

Another contributor to the uncertain future about the income of Americans is the record number of people who have quit their jobs, and the record number who appear in no rush to become employed. In recent months, several million people have quit their jobs each month. Some of these have retired because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Others believe they can find better-paying jobs. And, the labor market is tight. The jobless rate nationwide was 3.9% in December.

Raw numbers about the national situation can be misleading. In November, according to the BLS, 1.9% of the working population of Nebraska was unemployed. In California, the figure was 6.9%.

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Another sharp difference among states is how much people make. The highest median household income among states is Maryland at $86,738. In Mississippi, it is $45,792.

The cost of living by state tends to match household income. People cannot afford expensive goods and services. This means prices have to be set to a market that is driven by these low wages.

According to the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center’s Cost of Living Data Series…

Mississippi had the lowest cost of living as of the end of the third quarter of 2021. The data were based on the costs of groceries, housing, utilities, transportation, and healthcare. The index used to rank states was a composite of these. Mississippi’s index was 85.1–the lowest. The low figure was driven to a large extent by the very low cost of housing.

In the middle of the list, Pennsylvania had an index of 100.5. The state with the highest index was Hawaii at 185.6.

Click here to read What Income Is Considered Middle Class In Your State

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.