Just how high-priced is your state, and how far are your dollars going?
A hundred bucks doesn’t go as far as it used to, that’s for sure — but it goes much farther in some states than it does in others.
A new study that uses 2013 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis resulted in some eye-opening findings. A map created by the Tax Foundation, which describes itself as an independent tax policy research organization, depicts just how far $100 goes depending on what state you live in as compared to the national average, according to a Patch.com report.
As it turns out, your money goes the farthest in Mississippi, where $100 allows you to purchase $115.21 worth of goods as opposed to the average, Not far behind are neighbors Arkansas ($114.29) and Alabama ($114.03). West Virginia stands at $113.12, and up in South Dakota it’s $114.16 per hundred bucks.
Those who are being penalized by getting the least amount of money for their dollar is in the District of Columbia, where $100 is only good enough for $84.96 worth of stuff. The lowest state is Hawaii at $86.06, then New York at $86.73, New Jersey ($87.34) and California ($89.06).
These differences are stark: if you get $50,000 per year in income in Mississippi, if you moved to D.C., you’d have to pull in $68,000 in order to enjoy the same standard of living. That’s a big pay raise for no difference in actual standard of living.
There are some general trends in this map, and most are rather intuitive. The lowest-cost states tend to be the most economically depressed areas: the “Bible Belt” in the South, the Midwest, and the “Rust Belt.” The highest-priced states, not surprisingly, are in the Northeast and on the West Coast. There are a couple outliers: Illinois and Colorado are two high-priced states surrounded by lower-priced states.