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Elizabethtown vs Dalton

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dalton is 0.8% less expensive than Elizabethtown.

0.8% less expensive

Dalton, GA is 0.8% less expensive than Elizabethtown, KY on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 89.8 vs 90.6). A $100,000 salary in Elizabethtown buys about the same as $99,196 in Dalton; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 90.6 (Elizabethtown) vs 89.8 (Dalton)
  • $100k in Elizabethtown ≈ $99,196 purchasing power in Dalton
  • Services drives the gap (+14.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair KY:GA 90.6→89.8

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE KY × GA
  • 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.

Elizabethtown
90.6
Cost Index
Dalton
89.8
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Elizabethtown, KY and Dalton, GA 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: Dalton is 14.2 points higher. 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 Elizabethtown to $99,196 in Dalton, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Elizabethtown
90.6
Dalton
89.8
Goods
Elizabethtown
96.2
Dalton
96.3
Services
Elizabethtown
74.6
Dalton
88.8
Rents
Elizabethtown
66.7
Dalton
63.3

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Elizabethtown would need to be in Dalton for the same purchasing power:

In Elizabethtown In Dalton Difference
$50,000 $49,598 $-402
$75,000 $74,397 $-603
$100,000 $99,196 $-804
$150,000 $148,794 $-1,206
$ in Elizabethtown = – in Dalton

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (90.6 → 89.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Dalton → Elizabethtown Elizabethtown Details Dalton Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dalton more expensive than Elizabethtown?

Dalton is 0.8% less expensive than Elizabethtown. The overall cost index is 89.8 vs 90.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Dalton equals $100K in Elizabethtown?

A $100,000 salary in Elizabethtown has the same purchasing power as $99,196 in Dalton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Elizabethtown and Dalton?

Rents in Elizabethtown are indexed at 66.7 while Dalton is at 63.3 (national average = 100). Elizabethtown 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.