A new study has revealed shocking disparities in how far your money will go depending on the state.
A hundred bucks will get you vastly different amounts of goods depending on what state you’re in — that’s according to a new study that analyzes 2013 data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
A new map released by the Tax Foundation, which bills itself as an independent tax policy research organization, shows that if you got $100, where you are in the United States may be just as important as how much money you have, according to a Patch.com report.
Your money goes the farthest in Mississippi. Out there, if you have $100, you can get $115.21 worth of goods compared to the national average, which means that state is where you’ll get the biggest bang for the buck. And your money will go pretty far in Mississippi’s neighbors as well: Arkansas is at $114.29 and Alabama at $114.03. West Virginia is another cheap state, with $100 being worth $113.12, and in South Dakota you can get $114.16 worth of goods with $100.
On the other end of the spectrum, the District of Columbia is the worst place to spend your $100, as it will only get you $84.96. Among the states, Hawaii is the worst at $86.06, followed by New York ($86.73), New Jersey ($87.34), and California ($89.05).
That means that where you live in the United States can have a huge impact on how much of your salary you’ll need to spend. For example, if you have $50,000 in take-home pay after taxes in Mississippi, if you moved to D.C., you’d have to pull in $68,000 to enjoy the same standard of living.
The trends are not terribly surprising: the lowest cost of living is in the Deep South, the Midwest, and the Rust Belt. The highest cost of living is in the Northeast and on the West Coast.
