Overall
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff -7.2 RPP
Fairbanks-College vs Racine-Mount Pleasant
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Racine-Mount Pleasant is 7% less expensive than Fairbanks-College.
7% less expensive
Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI is 7% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.0 vs 103.2). A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College buys about the same as $92,978 in Racine-Mount Pleasant; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 103.2 (Fairbanks-College) vs 96.0 (Racine-Mount Pleasant)
- $100k in Fairbanks-College ≈ $92,978 purchasing power in Racine-Mount Pleasant
- Services drives the gap (-29.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair AK:WI 103.2→96.0
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE AK × WI
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-SHIFT PP shift
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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI is 7% less expensive than Fairbanks-College, AK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 7.2-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Racine-Mount Pleasant is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Racine-Mount Pleasant 29.8 points lower than Fairbanks-College. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
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 Fairbanks-College to $92,978 in Racine-Mount Pleasant, but it is not a personal spending weight.
How the Price Gap Changed
Fairbanks-College and Racine-Mount Pleasant share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.4 to 7.2 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 36.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (7.0 to 29.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Fairbanks-College RPP | Racine-Mount Pleasant RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 104.7 | 96.3 | 8.4 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 97.9 | 94.4 | 3.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2016 | 100.4 | 94.6 | 5.8 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 99.4 | 93.9 | 5.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 103.2 | 96.0 | 7.2 points Fairbanks-College 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.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff -13.6 RPP
Services
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff -29.8 RPP
Rents
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff -0.5 RPP
| Category | Fairbanks-College | Racine-Mount Pleasant | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 103.2 | 96.0 | -7.2 |
| Goods | 107.3 | 93.8 | -13.6 |
| Services | 119.8 | 90.0 | -29.8 |
| Rents | 92.6 | 92.0 | -0.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Racine-Mount Pleasant 96.0
Goods
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Racine-Mount Pleasant 93.8
Services
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Racine-Mount Pleasant 90.0
Rents
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Racine-Mount Pleasant 92.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Fairbanks-College would need to be in Racine-Mount Pleasant for the same purchasing power:
| In Fairbanks-College | In Racine-Mount Pleasant | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $46,489 | $-3,511 |
| $75,000 | $69,734 | $-5,266 |
| $100,000 | $92,978 | $-7,022 |
| $150,000 | $139,467 | $-10,533 |
$ in Fairbanks-College = in Racine-Mount Pleasant
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (103.2 → 96.0), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Racine-Mount Pleasant
96.0
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Racine-Mount Pleasant more expensive than Fairbanks-College?
Racine-Mount Pleasant is 7% less expensive than Fairbanks-College. The overall cost index is 96.0 vs 103.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Racine-Mount Pleasant equals $100K in Fairbanks-College?
A $100,000 salary in Fairbanks-College has the same purchasing power as $92,978 in Racine-Mount Pleasant. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Fairbanks-College and Racine-Mount Pleasant?
Rents in Fairbanks-College are indexed at 92.6 while Racine-Mount Pleasant is at 92.0 (national average = 100). Fairbanks-College 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.