Overall
- Boise City
- 98.4
Diff +15.2 RPP
Boise City vs Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is 15.4% more expensive than Boise City.
15.4% more expensive
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA is 15.4% more expensive than Boise City, ID on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 113.6 vs 98.4). A $100,000 salary in Boise City buys about the same as $115,423 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.4 (Boise City) vs 113.6 (Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim)
- $100k in Boise City ≈ $115,423 purchasing power in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
- Services drives the gap (+87.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair ID:CA 98.4→113.6
TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-STEEP
- TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
- CROSS-STATE ID × CA
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-STEEP Steep PP convert
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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Boise City, ID and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 15.2 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is above 100 while Boise City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 87.9 points higher than Boise City. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
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 Boise City to $115,423 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Boise City
- 96.2
Diff +10.4 RPP
Services
- Boise City
- 70.7
Diff +87.9 RPP
Rents
- Boise City
- 105.6
Diff +64.9 RPP
| Category | Boise City | Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.4 | 113.6 | +15.2 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 106.6 | +10.4 |
| Services | 70.7 | 158.6 | +87.9 |
| Rents | 105.6 | 170.4 | +64.9 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Boise City 98.4
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 113.6
Goods
Boise City 96.2
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 106.6
Services
Boise City 70.7
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 158.6
Rents
Boise City 105.6
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim 170.4
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Boise City would need to be in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim for the same purchasing power:
| In Boise City | In Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $57,712 | +$7,712 |
| $75,000 | $86,567 | +$11,567 |
| $100,000 | $115,423 | +$15,423 |
| $150,000 | $173,135 | +$23,135 |
$ in Boise City = in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.4 → 113.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Boise City
98.4
Cost Index
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim
113.6
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim more expensive than Boise City?
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is 15.4% more expensive than Boise City. The overall cost index is 113.6 vs 98.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim equals $100K in Boise City?
A $100,000 salary in Boise City has the same purchasing power as $115,423 in Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Boise City and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim?
Rents in Boise City are indexed at 105.6 while Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim is at 170.4 (national average = 100). Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
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.