We mapped how much it actually costs to live in each state.
By Chris Kolmar
4/5/2019
If you live in the U.S., you know this place is expensive. And super affordable. And somewhere in the middle.
The point we’re trying to make here is, depending on where exactly you live in the U.S., your cost of living can be sky high or as low as dirt. After all, this is the melting pot of the world—why wouldn’t the cost of living—and therefore, the living wage—vary just as much as the folks who make up this country?
So to clear this up a little bit, we’ve done a little digging. We researched the Living Wage for each state in the U.S., and mapped it out. Because pictures make everything easier.
And just to be clear, the Living Wage we’re talking about here is how much it will cost you (annually) to actually live in each state; more specifically—the income needed to support two adults and one kiddo. In order to determine this, we used MIT’s Living Wage Calculator, which can be found here.
You can access an image of the map here.
Now normally, here’s the point where we go over each place ranked and tell you a little something. But since this time around, we are looking at all 50 states, we figure looking at the top five highest and top five lowest living wages in more detail should suffice. After all, you wouldn’t want to read 50 different detailed descriptions—you could be out makin’ that green. (Money.)
Depending on where you are in this vast and varied country, your living wage could be all over the map. So, it’s a good thing that we created one, so you know which state best fits your needs.
