One of the main drawbacks to living in major cities is the price. Goods and services are all fairly expensive compared to less densely populated areas. Nearly every state is home to one major metropolitan area in which the cost of living is well above the average for that state.

To determine the most expensive city in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on cost of living from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Just because a city is the most expensive in its state does not necessarily mean its cost of living is that high when compared to the national average cost of living. In 29 states, the most expensive city has a lower cost of living than is typical nationwide, largely because the prices of goods and services statewide fall well below national prices.

The vast majority of metro areas on the list expanded, with their population increasing well beyond the 2.9% national population growth over the last five years. Costs of living tend to be higher in places where people want to live. These kinds of metro areas typically have abundant economic opportunity, reflected in the areas’ relatively high incomes and low poverty rates, compared to both the state and the country.

The most expensive city to live in Utah is the Salt Lake City metro area. There, the cost of living is 1.4% lower than the average cost nationwide. The cost of living in Utah is 3.5% lower than is typical in the U.S.

Cities tend to have higher costs of living when their residents have higher incomes. In the Salt Lake City metro area the median household income is $80,196, compared to the median in Utah, which is $75,780. The metro area also has a poverty rate of 8.6%, compared to the Utah poverty rate of 8.9%

To determine the most expensive city in every state, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on cost of living from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Metropolitan areas were ranked based on the regional price parity for all goods and services as of 2019. Supplemental data on median household income and poverty rate came from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Community Survey.

State	Most expensive city	Cost of living vs. nationwide	State cost of living vs. nationwide	Median household income ($)
Alabama	Daphne-Fairhope-Foley	9.8% lower	14.2% lower	56,439
Alaska	Fairbanks	6.8% higher	5.1% higher	72,065
Arizona	Flagstaff	0.7% lower	3.7% lower	58,085
Arkansas	Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers	11.8% lower	15.3% lower	61,674
California	San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley	34.5% higher	16.4% higher	114,696
Colorado	Boulder	6.7% higher	1.9% higher	88,535
Connecticut	Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk	12.4% higher	5% higher	97,053
Delaware	Dover	7.5% lower	0.6% lower	58,001
Florida	Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach	11.7% higher	1% higher	60,141
Georgia	Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta	2.1% lower	6.8% lower	71,742
Hawaii	Urban Honolulu	23.8% higher	19.3% higher	87,470
Idaho	Boise City	6.4% lower	7.8% lower	66,466
Illinois	Chicago-Naperville-Elgin	2.8% higher	2.6% lower	75,379
Indiana	Bloomington	8.5% lower	11.3% lower	52,526
Iowa	Iowa City	7.1% lower	11% lower	63,761
Kansas	Lawrence	8.9% lower	10.8% lower	64,233
Kentucky	Lexington-Fayette	9.4% lower	12.6% lower	60,492
Louisiana	New Orleans-Metairie	6.9% lower	12.1% lower	55,710
Maine	Portland-South Portland	3.7% higher	0.7% lower	71,913
Maryland	Baltimore-Columbia-Towson	5.8% higher	7.7% higher	83,160
Massachusetts	Boston-Cambridge-Newton	15.5% higher	10.4% higher	94,430
Michigan	Ann Arbor	0.6% higher	7.7% lower	76,576
Minnesota	Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington	2.9% higher	2% lower	83,698
Mississippi	Jackson	12.3% lower	15.6% lower	52,426
Missouri	Kansas City	7.2% lower	11.3% lower	70,215
Montana	Missoula	4.6% lower	6.5% lower	57,347
Nebraska	Omaha-Council Bluffs	8.3% lower	10.5% lower	70,373
Nevada	Reno	1.6% lower	2.6% lower	72,132
New Hampshire	Manchester-Nashua	7.6% higher	6.5% higher	83,626
New Jersey	Trenton-Princeton	6.2% higher	16% higher	79,492
New Mexico	Santa Fe	3% lower	8.9% lower	61,298
New York	New York-Newark-Jersey City	25.7% higher	16.3% higher	83,160
North Carolina	Raleigh-Cary	3.9% lower	8.3% lower	80,096
North Dakota	Bismarck	8.1% lower	10.7% lower	70,979
Ohio	Columbus	8.4% lower	11.6% lower	67,207
Oklahoma	Oklahoma City	10.2% lower	12.8% lower	60,605
Oregon	Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro	5% higher	2.2% higher	78,439
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington	5.3% higher	3% lower	74,533
Rhode Island	Providence-Warwick	0.3% higher	1.3% higher	70,967
South Carolina	Charleston-North Charleston	2.9% lower	8.5% lower	70,505
South Dakota	Sioux Falls	8.8% lower	12.2% lower	65,566
Tennessee	Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin	5.6% lower	10.3% lower	70,262
Texas	Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land	1.7% higher	3.5% lower	69,193
Utah	Salt Lake City	1.4% lower	3.5% lower	80,196
Vermont	Burlington-South Burlington	6.2% higher	3.1% higher	74,909
Virginia	Charlottesville	1.2% lower	1.3% higher	75,907
Washington	Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue	14.5% higher	8.4% higher	94,027
West Virginia	Morgantown	10.2% lower	12.9% lower	56,395
Wisconsin	Madison	3.6% lower	8.1% lower	75,545
Wyoming	Casper	7% lower	7.2% lower	65,034

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