Overall
- Flint
- 93.0
- Champaign-Urbana
- 92.7
Diff -0.3 RPP
Flint vs Champaign-Urbana
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Champaign-Urbana is 0.4% less expensive than Flint.
0.4% less expensive
Champaign-Urbana, IL is 0.4% less expensive than Flint, MI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 92.7 vs 93.0). A $100,000 salary in Flint buys about the same as $99,645 in Champaign-Urbana; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 93.0 (Flint) vs 92.7 (Champaign-Urbana)
- $100k in Flint ≈ $99,645 purchasing power in Champaign-Urbana
- Services drives the gap (-6.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MI:IL 93.0→92.7
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MI × IL
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- 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.
Flint
93.0
Cost Index
Champaign-Urbana
92.7
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Flint, MI and Champaign-Urbana, 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 leads the difference, with Champaign-Urbana 6.6 points lower than Flint. 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.
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 Flint to $99,645 in Champaign-Urbana, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Flint
- 93.7
- Champaign-Urbana
- 93.6
Diff -0.1 RPP
Services
- Flint
- 97.1
- Champaign-Urbana
- 90.5
Diff -6.6 RPP
Rents
- Flint
- 74.0
- Champaign-Urbana
- 71.6
Diff -2.4 RPP
| Category | Flint | Champaign-Urbana | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 93.0 | 92.7 | -0.3 |
| Goods | 93.7 | 93.6 | -0.1 |
| Services | 97.1 | 90.5 | -6.6 |
| Rents | 74.0 | 71.6 | -2.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Flint 93.0
Champaign-Urbana 92.7
Goods
Flint 93.7
Champaign-Urbana 93.6
Services
Flint 97.1
Champaign-Urbana 90.5
Rents
Flint 74.0
Champaign-Urbana 71.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Flint and Champaign-Urbana share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 0.2 to 0.3 RPP points. Flint remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 13.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (10.7 to 2.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Flint RPP | Champaign-Urbana RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 96.0 | 96.2 | 0.2 points Champaign-Urbana higher |
| 2012 | 93.0 | 94.2 | 1.1 points Champaign-Urbana higher |
| 2016 | 90.8 | 93.7 | 3.0 points Champaign-Urbana higher |
| 2020 | 89.8 | 91.9 | 2.0 points Champaign-Urbana higher |
| 2024 | 93.0 | 92.7 | 0.3 points Flint 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 Flint would need to be in Champaign-Urbana for the same purchasing power:
| In Flint | In Champaign-Urbana | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,823 | $-177 |
| $75,000 | $74,734 | $-266 |
| $100,000 | $99,645 | $-355 |
| $150,000 | $149,468 | $-532 |
$ in Flint = in Champaign-Urbana
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (93.0 → 92.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Champaign-Urbana more expensive than Flint?
Champaign-Urbana is 0.4% less expensive than Flint. The overall cost index is 92.7 vs 93.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Champaign-Urbana equals $100K in Flint?
A $100,000 salary in Flint has the same purchasing power as $99,645 in Champaign-Urbana. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Flint and Champaign-Urbana?
Rents in Flint are indexed at 74.0 while Champaign-Urbana is at 71.6 (national average = 100). Flint 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.