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Baton Rouge vs Abilene

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Abilene is 0.5% less expensive than Baton Rouge.

0.5% less expensive

Abilene, TX is 0.5% less expensive than Baton Rouge, LA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 90.4 vs 90.8). A $100,000 salary in Baton Rouge buys about the same as $99,542 in Abilene; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 90.8 (Baton Rouge) vs 90.4 (Abilene)
  • $100k in Baton Rouge ≈ $99,542 purchasing power in Abilene
  • Services drives the gap (+10.0 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair LA:TX 90.8→90.4

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE LA × TX
  • 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.

Baton Rouge
90.8
Cost Index
Abilene
90.4
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Baton Rouge, LA and Abilene, TX are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Abilene is 10.0 points higher. But services and goods 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 Baton Rouge to $99,542 in Abilene, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Baton Rouge
90.8
Abilene
90.4
Goods
Baton Rouge
93.7
Abilene
93.8
Services
Baton Rouge
71.2
Abilene
81.2
Rents
Baton Rouge
74.2
Abilene
73.8

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Baton Rouge would need to be in Abilene for the same purchasing power:

In Baton Rouge In Abilene Difference
$50,000 $49,771 $-229
$75,000 $74,656 $-344
$100,000 $99,542 $-458
$150,000 $149,313 $-687
$ in Baton Rouge = – in Abilene

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (90.8 → 90.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Abilene → Baton Rouge Baton Rouge Details Abilene Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Abilene more expensive than Baton Rouge?

Abilene is 0.5% less expensive than Baton Rouge. The overall cost index is 90.4 vs 90.8 (national average = 100).

What salary in Abilene equals $100K in Baton Rouge?

A $100,000 salary in Baton Rouge has the same purchasing power as $99,542 in Abilene. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Baton Rouge and Abilene?

Rents in Baton Rouge are indexed at 74.2 while Abilene is at 73.8 (national average = 100). Baton Rouge 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.