Overall
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 103.6
Diff -3.6 RPP
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin vs Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is 3.5% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin.
3.5% less expensive
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ is 3.5% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 100.0 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin buys about the same as $96,499 in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin) vs 100.0 (Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton)
- $100k in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ≈ $96,499 purchasing power in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
- Services drives the gap (+24.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair IL:PA 103.6→100.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE IL × PA
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 107.3
Diff -6.7 RPP
Services
Diff +24.0 RPP
Rents
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 112.0
Diff -6.5 RPP
| Category | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 100.0 | -3.6 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 100.6 | -6.7 |
| Services | 83.6 | 107.6 | +24.0 |
| Rents | 112.0 | 105.5 | -6.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 103.6
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 100.0
Goods
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 107.3
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 100.6
Services
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 83.6
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 107.6
Rents
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 112.0
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton 105.5
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is 24.0 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ is 3.5% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 3.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is above 100 while Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
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 Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to $96,499 in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
103.6
Cost Index
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
100.0
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin would need to be in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton for the same purchasing power:
| In Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | In Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,249 | $-1,751 |
| $75,000 | $72,374 | $-2,626 |
| $100,000 | $96,499 | $-3,501 |
| $150,000 | $144,748 | $-5,252 |
$ in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin = in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 100.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 4.4 to 3.6 RPP points. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 17.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (23.9 to 6.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin RPP | Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 105.4 | 101.1 | 4.4 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2012 | 105.1 | 99.9 | 5.2 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2016 | 103.8 | 101.1 | 2.7 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2020 | 104.5 | 99.7 | 4.8 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2024 | 103.6 | 100.0 | 3.6 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton more expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is 3.5% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. The overall cost index is 100.0 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton equals $100K in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin has the same purchasing power as $96,499 in Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton?
Rents in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin are indexed at 112.0 while Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton is at 105.5 (national average = 100). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 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.