Overall
- Evansville
- 91.5
- Peoria
- 91.2
Diff -0.3 RPP
Evansville vs Peoria
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Peoria is 0.3% less expensive than Evansville.
0.3% less expensive
Peoria, IL is 0.3% less expensive than Evansville, IN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.2 vs 91.5). A $100,000 salary in Evansville buys about the same as $99,676 in Peoria; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 91.5 (Evansville) vs 91.2 (Peoria)
- $100k in Evansville ≈ $99,676 purchasing power in Peoria
- Services drives the gap (+3.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair IN:IL 91.5→91.2
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE IN × IL
- 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.
Evansville
91.5
Cost Index
Peoria
91.2
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Evansville, IN and Peoria, IL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.3 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Peoria is 3.8 points higher. But services 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 Evansville to $99,676 in Peoria, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Evansville
- 94.3
- Peoria
- 93.6
Diff -0.7 RPP
Services
- Evansville
- 86.7
- Peoria
- 90.5
Diff +3.8 RPP
Rents
- Evansville
- 66.7
- Peoria
- 63.8
Diff -3.0 RPP
| Category | Evansville | Peoria | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 91.5 | 91.2 | -0.3 |
| Goods | 94.3 | 93.6 | -0.7 |
| Services | 86.7 | 90.5 | +3.8 |
| Rents | 66.7 | 63.8 | -3.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Evansville 91.5
Peoria 91.2
Goods
Evansville 94.3
Peoria 93.6
Services
Evansville 86.7
Peoria 90.5
Rents
Evansville 66.7
Peoria 63.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Evansville and Peoria share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.2 to 0.3 RPP points. Evansville remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 6.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.9 to 3.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Evansville RPP | Peoria RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 93.8 | 94.0 | 0.2 points Peoria higher |
| 2012 | 93.1 | 92.8 | 0.2 points Evansville higher |
| 2016 | 90.9 | 90.7 | 0.2 points Evansville higher |
| 2020 | 90.3 | 90.4 | 0.1 points Peoria higher |
| 2024 | 91.5 | 91.2 | 0.3 points Evansville 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 Evansville would need to be in Peoria for the same purchasing power:
| In Evansville | In Peoria | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,838 | $-162 |
| $75,000 | $74,757 | $-243 |
| $100,000 | $99,676 | $-324 |
| $150,000 | $149,513 | $-487 |
$ in Evansville = in Peoria
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.5 → 91.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Peoria more expensive than Evansville?
Peoria is 0.3% less expensive than Evansville. The overall cost index is 91.2 vs 91.5 (national average = 100).
What salary in Peoria equals $100K in Evansville?
A $100,000 salary in Evansville has the same purchasing power as $99,676 in Peoria. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Evansville and Peoria?
Rents in Evansville are indexed at 66.7 while Peoria is at 63.8 (national average = 100). Evansville 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.