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Baton Rouge vs Lewiston

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lewiston is 0.4% more expensive than Baton Rouge.

0.4% more expensive

Lewiston, ID-WA is 0.4% more expensive than Baton Rouge, LA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.2 vs 90.8). A $100,000 salary in Baton Rouge buys about the same as $100,419 in Lewiston; the largest component gap is goods.

  • Overall RPP 90.8 (Baton Rouge) vs 91.2 (Lewiston)
  • $100k in Baton Rouge ≈ $100,419 purchasing power in Lewiston
  • Goods drives the gap (+2.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair LA:ID 90.8→91.2

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE LA × ID
  • 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
Lewiston
91.2
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Baton Rouge, LA and Lewiston, ID-WA 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.

Goods creates the largest separation: Lewiston is 2.5 points higher. 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $100,419 in Lewiston as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Baton Rouge, then replace the national basket with your own.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Baton Rouge
90.8
Lewiston
91.2
Goods
Baton Rouge
93.7
Lewiston
96.2
Services
Baton Rouge
71.2
Lewiston
72.6
Rents
Baton Rouge
74.2
Lewiston
71.9

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

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

In Baton Rouge In Lewiston Difference
$50,000 $50,209 +$209
$75,000 $75,314 +$314
$100,000 $100,419 +$419
$150,000 $150,628 +$628
$ in Baton Rouge = – in Lewiston

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (90.8 → 91.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Lewiston → Baton Rouge Baton Rouge Details Lewiston Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lewiston more expensive than Baton Rouge?

Lewiston is 0.4% more expensive than Baton Rouge. The overall cost index is 91.2 vs 90.8 (national average = 100).

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

A $100,000 salary in Baton Rouge has the same purchasing power as $100,419 in Lewiston. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Baton Rouge and Lewiston?

Rents in Baton Rouge are indexed at 74.2 while Lewiston is at 71.9 (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.