Overall
- Dalton
- 89.8
- Elizabethtown
- 90.6
Diff +0.7 RPP
Dalton vs Elizabethtown
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Elizabethtown is 0.8% more expensive than Dalton.
0.8% more expensive
Elizabethtown, KY is 0.8% more expensive than Dalton, GA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 90.6 vs 89.8). A $100,000 salary in Dalton buys about the same as $100,810 in Elizabethtown; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 89.8 (Dalton) vs 90.6 (Elizabethtown)
- $100k in Dalton ≈ $100,810 purchasing power in Elizabethtown
- Services drives the gap (-14.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair GA:KY 89.8→90.6
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE GA × KY
- 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.
Dalton
89.8
Cost Index
Elizabethtown
90.6
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Dalton, GA and Elizabethtown, KY are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.7 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Elizabethtown is 14.2 points lower. 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 Dalton to $100,810 in Elizabethtown, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Dalton
- 96.3
- Elizabethtown
- 96.2
Diff -0.0 RPP
Services
- Dalton
- 88.8
- Elizabethtown
- 74.6
Diff -14.2 RPP
Rents
- Dalton
- 63.3
- Elizabethtown
- 66.7
Diff +3.3 RPP
| Category | Dalton | Elizabethtown | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 89.8 | 90.6 | +0.7 |
| Goods | 96.3 | 96.2 | -0.0 |
| Services | 88.8 | 74.6 | -14.2 |
| Rents | 63.3 | 66.7 | +3.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dalton 89.8
Elizabethtown 90.6
Goods
Dalton 96.3
Elizabethtown 96.2
Services
Dalton 88.8
Elizabethtown 74.6
Rents
Dalton 63.3
Elizabethtown 66.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Dalton and Elizabethtown share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.7 to 0.7 RPP points. Elizabethtown remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 2.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (1.2 to 3.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dalton RPP | Elizabethtown RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 89.3 | 90.0 | 0.7 points Elizabethtown higher |
| 2012 | 88.5 | 88.8 | 0.2 points Elizabethtown higher |
| 2016 | 87.6 | 88.8 | 1.2 points Elizabethtown higher |
| 2020 | 84.5 | 88.0 | 3.5 points Elizabethtown higher |
| 2024 | 89.8 | 90.6 | 0.7 points Elizabethtown 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.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Dalton would need to be in Elizabethtown for the same purchasing power:
| In Dalton | In Elizabethtown | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,405 | +$405 |
| $75,000 | $75,608 | +$608 |
| $100,000 | $100,810 | +$810 |
| $150,000 | $151,215 | +$1,215 |
$ in Dalton = in Elizabethtown
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (89.8 → 90.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Elizabethtown more expensive than Dalton?
Elizabethtown is 0.8% more expensive than Dalton. The overall cost index is 90.6 vs 89.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Elizabethtown equals $100K in Dalton?
A $100,000 salary in Dalton has the same purchasing power as $100,810 in Elizabethtown. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dalton and Elizabethtown?
Rents in Dalton are indexed at 63.3 while Elizabethtown is at 66.7 (national average = 100). Elizabethtown 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.