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Dothan vs Fort Smith

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fort Smith is 2.5% more expensive than Dothan.

2.5% more expensive

Fort Smith, AR-OK is 2.5% more expensive than Dothan, AL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.9 vs 83.8). A $100,000 salary in Dothan buys about the same as $102,451 in Fort Smith; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 83.8 (Dothan) vs 85.9 (Fort Smith)
  • $100k in Dothan ≈ $102,451 purchasing power in Fort Smith
  • Services drives the gap (-10.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AL:AR 83.8→85.9

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE AL × AR
  • 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.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Dothan
83.8
Fort Smith
85.9
Goods
Dothan
96.4
Fort Smith
93.6
Services
Dothan
84.3
Fort Smith
73.8
Rents
Dothan
46.9
Fort Smith
53.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Services creates the largest separation: Fort Smith is 10.5 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.

Fort Smith, AR-OK is 2.5% more expensive than Dothan, AL, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.1-point overall gap.

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.

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 Dothan to $102,451 in Fort Smith, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Dothan
83.8
Cost Index
Fort Smith
85.9
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Dothan would need to be in Fort Smith for the same purchasing power:

In Dothan In Fort Smith Difference
$50,000 $51,226 +$1,226
$75,000 $76,838 +$1,838
$100,000 $102,451 +$2,451
$150,000 $153,677 +$3,677
$ in Dothan = – in Fort Smith

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (83.8 → 85.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Fort Smith → Dothan Dothan Details Fort Smith Details

Also Compare

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fort Smith more expensive than Dothan?

Fort Smith is 2.5% more expensive than Dothan. The overall cost index is 85.9 vs 83.8 (national average = 100).

What salary in Fort Smith equals $100K in Dothan?

A $100,000 salary in Dothan has the same purchasing power as $102,451 in Fort Smith. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Dothan and Fort Smith?

Rents in Dothan are indexed at 46.9 while Fort Smith is at 53.4 (national average = 100). Fort Smith has higher rents.

Data sources

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.