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Altoona vs Rapid City

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Rapid City is 0.4% less expensive than Altoona.

0.4% less expensive

Rapid City, SD is 0.4% less expensive than Altoona, PA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 89.2 vs 89.5). A $100,000 salary in Altoona buys about the same as $99,612 in Rapid City; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 89.5 (Altoona) vs 89.2 (Rapid City)
  • $100k in Altoona ≈ $99,612 purchasing power in Rapid City
  • Services drives the gap (-28.6 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair PA:SD 89.5→89.2

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE PA × SD
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BOTH-BELOW Both below 100
  • PP-PAR PP near-par

Instrument codes from this pair's BEA Regional Price Parities (overall · goods · services · rents · national benchmark 100 · purchasing-power conversion), not a ranking or recommendation.

Altoona
89.5
Cost Index
Rapid City
89.2
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Altoona, PA and Rapid City, SD are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.3 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Rapid City is 28.6 points lower. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.

Both metros remain below the U.S. benchmark of 100. This comparison chooses between two below-average price levels; “more expensive” here does not mean nationally expensive.

For a service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Altoona to $99,612 in Rapid City, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Altoona
89.5
Rapid City
89.2
Goods
Altoona
100.7
Rapid City
95.5
Services
Altoona
107.7
Rapid City
79.1
Rents
Altoona
55.0
Rapid City
72.6

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Altoona would need to be in Rapid City for the same purchasing power:

In Altoona In Rapid City Difference
$50,000 $49,806 $-194
$75,000 $74,709 $-291
$100,000 $99,612 $-388
$150,000 $149,418 $-582
$ in Altoona = – in Rapid City

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (89.5 → 89.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Rapid City → Altoona Altoona Details Rapid City Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Rapid City more expensive than Altoona?

Rapid City is 0.4% less expensive than Altoona. The overall cost index is 89.2 vs 89.5 (national average = 100).

What salary in Rapid City equals $100K in Altoona?

A $100,000 salary in Altoona has the same purchasing power as $99,612 in Rapid City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Altoona and Rapid City?

Rents in Altoona are indexed at 55.0 while Rapid City is at 72.6 (national average = 100). Rapid City has higher rents.

Data sources

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

Every figure on PlainCost is rendered directly from BEA Regional Price Parity source data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, our changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-08-11. Rankings measure the published cost-of-living index only; we don't recommend where to live or rate any metro's quality of life.