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Fort Smith vs Dothan

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Dothan is 2.4% less expensive than Fort Smith.

2.4% less expensive

Dothan, AL is 2.4% less expensive than Fort Smith, AR-OK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 83.8 vs 85.9). A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith buys about the same as $97,607 in Dothan; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 85.9 (Fort Smith) vs 83.8 (Dothan)
  • $100k in Fort Smith ≈ $97,607 purchasing power in Dothan
  • Services drives the gap (+10.5 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AR:AL 85.9→83.8

TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • TIER-NEAR Near tier
  • CROSS-STATE AR × AL
  • 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.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Fort Smith
85.9
Dothan
83.8
Goods
Fort Smith
93.6
Dothan
96.4
Services
Fort Smith
73.8
Dothan
84.3
Rents
Fort Smith
53.4
Dothan
46.9

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Services creates the largest separation: Dothan is 10.5 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.

Dothan, AL is 2.4% less expensive than Fort Smith, AR-OK, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.1-point overall gap.

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.

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 Fort Smith to $97,607 in Dothan, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Fort Smith
85.9
Cost Index
Dothan
83.8
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Fort Smith would need to be in Dothan for the same purchasing power:

In Fort Smith In Dothan Difference
$50,000 $48,804 $-1,196
$75,000 $73,206 $-1,794
$100,000 $97,607 $-2,393
$150,000 $146,411 $-3,589
$ in Fort Smith = – in Dothan

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (85.9 → 83.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Dothan → Fort Smith Fort Smith Details Dothan Details

Also Compare

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dothan more expensive than Fort Smith?

Dothan is 2.4% less expensive than Fort Smith. The overall cost index is 83.8 vs 85.9 (national average = 100).

What salary in Dothan equals $100K in Fort Smith?

A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith has the same purchasing power as $97,607 in Dothan. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Fort Smith and Dothan?

Rents in Fort Smith are indexed at 53.4 while Dothan is at 46.9 (national average = 100). Fort Smith 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.