Overall
- Dothan
- 83.8
Diff +1.0 RPP
Dothan vs Florence-Muscle Shoals
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Florence-Muscle Shoals is 1.2% more expensive than Dothan.
1.2% more expensive
Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL is 1.2% more expensive than Dothan, AL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 84.8 vs 83.8). A $100,000 salary in Dothan buys about the same as $101,174 in Florence-Muscle Shoals; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 83.8 (Dothan) vs 84.8 (Florence-Muscle Shoals)
- $100k in Dothan ≈ $101,174 purchasing power in Florence-Muscle Shoals
- Services drives the gap (+1.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AL:AL 83.8→84.8
PHOTO-FINISH · SAME-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- SAME-STATE Same state · AL
- 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.
Dothan
83.8
Cost Index
Florence-Muscle Shoals
84.8
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Dothan, AL and Florence-Muscle Shoals, AL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Florence-Muscle Shoals is 1.5 points higher. But 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 Dothan to $101,174 in Florence-Muscle Shoals, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Dothan
- 96.4
Diff 0.0 RPP
Services
- Dothan
- 84.3
Diff +1.5 RPP
Rents
- Dothan
- 46.9
Diff +0.8 RPP
| Category | Dothan | Florence-Muscle Shoals | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 83.8 | 84.8 | +1.0 |
| Goods | 96.4 | 96.4 | 0.0 |
| Services | 84.3 | 85.8 | +1.5 |
| Rents | 46.9 | 47.7 | +0.8 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dothan 83.8
Florence-Muscle Shoals 84.8
Goods
Dothan 96.4
Florence-Muscle Shoals 96.4
Services
Dothan 84.3
Florence-Muscle Shoals 85.8
Rents
Dothan 46.9
Florence-Muscle Shoals 47.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Dothan and Florence-Muscle Shoals share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 3.5 to 1.0 RPP points. Florence-Muscle Shoals remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 7.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (6.9 to 0.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dothan RPP | Florence-Muscle Shoals RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 86.8 | 83.3 | 3.5 points Dothan higher |
| 2012 | 88.6 | 88.6 | 0.0 points Florence-Muscle Shoals higher |
| 2016 | 88.3 | 85.9 | 2.4 points Dothan higher |
| 2020 | 86.5 | 82.8 | 3.7 points Dothan higher |
| 2024 | 83.8 | 84.8 | 1.0 points Florence-Muscle Shoals 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 Dothan would need to be in Florence-Muscle Shoals for the same purchasing power:
| In Dothan | In Florence-Muscle Shoals | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,587 | +$587 |
| $75,000 | $75,880 | +$880 |
| $100,000 | $101,174 | +$1,174 |
| $150,000 | $151,761 | +$1,761 |
$ in Dothan = in Florence-Muscle Shoals
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (83.8 → 84.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Florence-Muscle Shoals more expensive than Dothan?
Florence-Muscle Shoals is 1.2% more expensive than Dothan. The overall cost index is 84.8 vs 83.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Florence-Muscle Shoals equals $100K in Dothan?
A $100,000 salary in Dothan has the same purchasing power as $101,174 in Florence-Muscle Shoals. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dothan and Florence-Muscle Shoals?
Rents in Dothan are indexed at 46.9 while Florence-Muscle Shoals is at 47.7 (national average = 100). Florence-Muscle Shoals 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.