Overall
- Dover
- 97.5
Diff -0.4 RPP
Dover vs Lakeland-Winter Haven
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Lakeland-Winter Haven is 0.4% less expensive than Dover.
0.4% less expensive
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL is 0.4% less expensive than Dover, DE on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.1 vs 97.5). A $100,000 salary in Dover buys about the same as $99,625 in Lakeland-Winter Haven; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 97.5 (Dover) vs 97.1 (Lakeland-Winter Haven)
- $100k in Dover ≈ $99,625 purchasing power in Lakeland-Winter Haven
- Services drives the gap (-10.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair DE:FL 97.5→97.1
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE DE × FL
- 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.
Dover
97.5
Cost Index
Lakeland-Winter Haven
97.1
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Dover, DE and Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Lakeland-Winter Haven is 10.3 points lower. But rents 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 Dover to $99,625 in Lakeland-Winter Haven, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Dover
- 96.4
Diff -0.1 RPP
Services
- Dover
- 97.2
Diff -10.3 RPP
Rents
- Dover
- 95.9
Diff +0.0 RPP
| Category | Dover | Lakeland-Winter Haven | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.5 | 97.1 | -0.4 |
| Goods | 96.4 | 96.2 | -0.1 |
| Services | 97.2 | 86.9 | -10.3 |
| Rents | 95.9 | 95.9 | +0.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Dover 97.5
Lakeland-Winter Haven 97.1
Goods
Dover 96.4
Lakeland-Winter Haven 96.2
Services
Dover 97.2
Lakeland-Winter Haven 86.9
Rents
Dover 95.9
Lakeland-Winter Haven 95.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Dover and Lakeland-Winter Haven share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.1 to 0.4 RPP points. Dover remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 4.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (14.5 to 10.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Dover RPP | Lakeland-Winter Haven RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 96.8 | 96.9 | 0.1 points Lakeland-Winter Haven higher |
| 2012 | 97.3 | 96.1 | 1.2 points Dover higher |
| 2016 | 100.3 | 96.4 | 3.9 points Dover higher |
| 2020 | 93.9 | 93.3 | 0.6 points Dover higher |
| 2024 | 97.5 | 97.1 | 0.4 points Dover 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 Dover would need to be in Lakeland-Winter Haven for the same purchasing power:
| In Dover | In Lakeland-Winter Haven | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,812 | $-188 |
| $75,000 | $74,718 | $-282 |
| $100,000 | $99,625 | $-375 |
| $150,000 | $149,437 | $-563 |
$ in Dover = in Lakeland-Winter Haven
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.5 → 97.1), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Lakeland-Winter Haven more expensive than Dover?
Lakeland-Winter Haven is 0.4% less expensive than Dover. The overall cost index is 97.1 vs 97.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Lakeland-Winter Haven equals $100K in Dover?
A $100,000 salary in Dover has the same purchasing power as $99,625 in Lakeland-Winter Haven. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Dover and Lakeland-Winter Haven?
Rents in Dover are indexed at 95.9 while Lakeland-Winter Haven is at 95.9 (national average = 100). Lakeland-Winter Haven 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.