May 22, 2005

Standard of Living by State:

Here's a table of the monetary standard of living by state, as calculated by median income for a family of four divided by the Accra's cost of living index. Minnesota has the highest standard of living, at least in terms of things money can buy (i.e., not weather). At the bottom are Washington D.C., Hawaii and California. Although Democrats tend to live in higher income states, they also live in higher cost of living states, so there is little correlation between a states monetary standard of living and its voting pattern.


By the way, author Thomas Frank has gotten a lot of mileage out of his book "What's the Matter with Kansas?" in which he contends that social conservative Republicans are exploited by wealthy Republicans. The rich right get from their alliance with the religious right the tax cuts they want, but the religious right don't get bans on abortion, pornography, etc. I think there's some truth to that, but considering that Kansas comes out with the 7th highest monetary standard of living out of the 49 states measured, it would appear that the overall answer to his question is "Not Much."


Median Income Family of 4 Cost of Living Index Standard of Living
Minnesota $77 100 $76
Illinois $72 99 $73
Wisconsin $69 95 $73
Colorado $72 101 $71
Delaware $73 103 $71
Missouri $64 91 $70
Kansas $64 92 $70
Virginia $72 103 $69
Ohio $66 95 $69
Indiana $65 94 $69
Iowa $64 94 $69
Pennsylvania $69 101 $68
Georgia $62 91 $68
Nebraska $64 93 $68
Connecticut $86 127 $68
Michigan $69 101 $68
Utah $62 92 $67
Washington $69 104 $67
Massachusetts $83 126 $66
Maryland $82 126 $65
New Jersey $87 134 $65
North Dakota $57 92 $62
South Dakota $59 95 $62
Tennessee $55 90 $62
Texas $55 89 $61
Alabama $55 93 $60
North Carolina $57 96 $59
South Carolina $56 95 $59
Florida $59 100 $58
Kentucky $53 91 $58
Oregon $62 107 $58
Vermont $66 114 $58
Idaho $53 94 $57
Arizona $58 103 $57
Oklahoma $50 89 $56
Nevada $63 112 $56
New York $69 124 $56
Alaska $72 129 $56
Arkansas $48 87 $56
Rhode Island $71 128 $56
Wyoming $56 102 $55
Louisiana $51 97 $52
Mississippi $47 91 $51
West Virginia $46 92 $50
Montana $49 98 $50
New Mexico $46 101 $45
California $68 151 $45
Hawaii $71 162 $44
District of Columbia $56 145 $39
Maine $60 NA
New Hampshire $79 NA

***


My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Could you add a citation for the median income and link it up?
Could you also link up the ACCR report?

Steve Sailer said...

http://ded.mo.gov/researchandplanning/indicators/cost_of_living/index.stm

may76inc said...

I found a web site that has some stats that may be useful.
Heres the link

may76inc said...

cost of living by state

may76inc said...

Statewide Sales tax in California is anywhere from 7.25% to 8.75 %. California doesn't tax on food or prescription drugs but does place a 40 cent per gallon tax on gasoline and an 87 cent tax on cigarettes.

Sales Tax Break Down

State General Fund - 6.25 % - Fiscal Recovery Fund - 0.25%
Local Revenue Fund- 0.50% Local Public Safety Fund .50%
Local Public Safety Fund 1.00% Uniform Local Tax 0.25%
County Transportation funds 0.75% -County Operational fund .25%

More information available on the Cost of living California website

Anonymous said...

It seems that cost of living will be driven by two things: price of housing and high-end income (the wealthy tend to distort prices higher).

It seems that a better measure would be how people 'vote with their feet.' To that case, high housing costs are pushing people out of places like California and Florida. But I still wouldn't say they're moving to Kansas. Rather, the Sun Belt seems where the action is, Georgie and Arizona and Nevada.

may76inc said...

Very true!
California Cost Of Living is driven by a housing market that is the 3rd worse nation wide and is second to only to Hawaii Cost Of Living in cost of living overall But Florida Cost Of Living is not so much driven by the housing market and is only around %113 above the national average. Personally I plan to retire in texas. Texas cost of living is the second lowest in the nation and is also second in housing.

Unknown said...

Cost of living comparison is immensely of paramount importance for expats who move to destination country to take up work assignments. Cost of living is considered as the monetary cost of maintaining ones standard of living.

More information available on Cost of living comparison