Overall
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 103.6
Diff -4.7 RPP
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 4.6% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin.
4.6% less expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 4.6% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 103.6). A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin buys about the same as $95,426 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.6 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin ≈ $95,426 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Services drives the gap (+25.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair IL:NJ 103.6→98.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE IL × NJ
- 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 -7.5 RPP
Services
- Atlantic City-Hammonton
- 109.2
Diff +25.6 RPP
Rents
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 112.0
Diff -13.3 RPP
| Category | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.6 | 98.9 | -4.7 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 99.8 | -7.5 |
| Services | 83.6 | 109.2 | +25.6 |
| Rents | 112.0 | 98.7 | -13.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 103.6
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 107.3
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 83.6
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 112.0
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 25.6 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 4.6% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 4.7-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 $95,426 in Atlantic City-Hammonton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
103.6
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,713 | $-2,287 |
| $75,000 | $71,570 | $-3,430 |
| $100,000 | $95,426 | $-4,574 |
| $150,000 | $143,140 | $-6,860 |
$ in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.6 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 5.3 to 4.7 RPP points. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 22.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.0 to 13.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 105.4 | 110.7 | 5.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 105.1 | 104.6 | 0.5 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2016 | 103.8 | 102.6 | 1.2 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2020 | 104.5 | 101.2 | 3.3 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2024 | 103.6 | 98.9 | 4.7 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 Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 4.6% less expensive than Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 103.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
A $100,000 salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin has the same purchasing power as $95,426 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin are indexed at 112.0 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (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.