Overall
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff +1.6 RPP
Fairbanks-College vs Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 1.6% more expensive than Fairbanks-College.
1.6% more expensive
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 1.6% more expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 104.8 vs 103.2). A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College buys about the same as $101,564 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.2 (Fairbanks-College) vs 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington)
- $100k in Fairbanks-College ≈ $101,564 purchasing power in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
- Services drives the gap (-26.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:MN 103.2→104.8
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-ABOVE · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE AK × MN
- SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
- BOTH-ABOVE Both above 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.
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Fairbanks-College, AK and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.6 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 26.3 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.
Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.
Both metros exceed the U.S. benchmark of 100. The choice is between two national premiums, so local wages need to clear the higher baseline in either market.
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 Fairbanks-College to $101,564 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff -4.3 RPP
Services
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff -26.3 RPP
Rents
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff +19.3 RPP
| Category | Fairbanks-College | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.2 | 104.8 | +1.6 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 103.1 | -4.3 |
| Services | 119.8 | 93.5 | -26.3 |
| Rents | 92.6 | 111.8 | +19.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Goods
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Services
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Rents
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Fairbanks-College and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 1.7 to 1.6 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 19.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (0.6 to 19.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Fairbanks-College RPP | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 104.7 | 102.9 | 1.7 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 101.2 | 3.3 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 100.4 | 102.3 | 1.9 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2020 | 99.4 | 102.4 | 3.0 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 103.2 | 104.8 | 1.6 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Fairbanks-College would need to be in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington for the same purchasing power:
| In Fairbanks-College | In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,782 | +$782 |
| $75,000 | $76,173 | +$1,173 |
| $100,000 | $101,564 | +$1,564 |
| $150,000 | $152,346 | +$2,346 |
$ in Fairbanks-College = in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.2 → 104.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington more expensive than Fairbanks-College?
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 1.6% more expensive than Fairbanks-College. The overall cost index is 104.8 vs 103.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington equals $100K in Fairbanks-College?
A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College has the same purchasing power as $101,564 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fairbanks-College and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Rents in Fairbanks-College are indexed at 92.6 while Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is at 111.8 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.