Graphic/map by me, created with excel and mapchart, all data and methodology from EPI's family budget calculator.

The point of this graphic is to illustrate the RELATIVE cost of living of different areas. People often say they live in a high cost or low cost area, but do they?

The median person lives in an area with a cost of living $102,912 for a family of 4. Consider the median full time worker earns $60,580 – 2 adults working median full time jobs would earn $121,160.

Check your County or Metro's Cost of Living

Posted by TA-MajestyPalm

13 comments

  1. Graphic/map by me, created with excel and mapchart, all data and methodology from [EPI’s family budget calculator. ](https://www.epi.org/publication/family-budget-calculator-documentation/)

    A note on West Virginia – the state stood out to me so I did some digging comparing border counties to neighboring Kentucky and Virginia. West Virginia has significantly higher healthcare costs, sometimes almost double. I’m not local so can’t comment on how accurate this is exactly along state lines.

    For those interested, here is a similar graphic I created for a [Single Person](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/s/kWURPMPDpQ) using slightly older data.

  2. I have some doubts: how the hell is Rockland county more expensive than Manhattan? More than Nassau?

  3. I went for 2yrs to US on a work trip, my (mis)luck got me to Orange county 🙂 And this is supposed to be a pro-poor state.

  4. What’s going on with West Virginia? I’d have expected most of the state to be LCOL since it’s a largely rural Appalachian / Rust Belt state, but instead almost every county is MCOL.

  5. Love how Asheville stands out on a map. That place is expensive for no fucking reason.

  6. I’m just going to have to state my objection to using “cost of living” calculations to compare locations within the same country. There isn’t really any increased costs of living any specific place in the US aside from Hawaii and Alaska due to logistics issues. Certain locations cost more because they have more to offer in return. Living in Manhattan provides you with all the benefits of a global city.. arts, culture, food, jobs, shopping etc. that you won’t find living in rural Kentucky. Claiming poverty because your Manhattan apartment is small compared to a house in Kentucky is like claiming poverty because you decided to buy a Porsche instead of a Honda.

  7. Surely there’s a mistake with Fayette County, KY being LCOL.

  8. Washoe county, NV should be hot pink. St. Louis county, MO should be blue. garbage data.

  9. Hudson county NJ is surprising, since it is so close to NYC

  10. Why did you make the LCOL and VVVCOL so close in color?

    I’m pretty colorblind and those look like the same soft shade of blue 

  11. Man, California and the northeast US stick out like crazy

  13. When I tell people Oakland isnt that much more expensive than Denver. And here’s the data.

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