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Fort Smith vs Joplin

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Joplin is 0.2% less expensive than Fort Smith.

0.2% less expensive

Joplin, MO-KS is 0.2% less expensive than Fort Smith, AR-OK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.7 vs 85.9). A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith buys about the same as $99,802 in Joplin; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 85.9 (Fort Smith) vs 85.7 (Joplin)
  • $100k in Fort Smith ≈ $99,802 purchasing power in Joplin
  • Services drives the gap (+12.1 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AR:MO 85.9→85.7

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE AR × MO
  • 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.

Fort Smith
85.9
Cost Index
Joplin
85.7
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Fort Smith, AR-OK and Joplin, MO-KS are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Joplin is 12.1 points higher. But services and goods and rents 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 Fort Smith to $99,802 in Joplin, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Fort Smith
85.9
Joplin
85.7
Goods
Fort Smith
93.6
Joplin
94.2
Services
Fort Smith
73.8
Joplin
85.9
Rents
Fort Smith
53.4
Joplin
54.0

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

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

In Fort Smith In Joplin Difference
$50,000 $49,901 $-99
$75,000 $74,852 $-148
$100,000 $99,802 $-198
$150,000 $149,703 $-297
$ in Fort Smith = – in Joplin

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (85.9 → 85.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Joplin → Fort Smith Fort Smith Details Joplin Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Joplin more expensive than Fort Smith?

Joplin is 0.2% less expensive than Fort Smith. The overall cost index is 85.7 vs 85.9 (national average = 100).

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

A $100,000 salary in Fort Smith has the same purchasing power as $99,802 in Joplin. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Fort Smith and Joplin?

Rents in Fort Smith are indexed at 53.4 while Joplin is at 54.0 (national average = 100). Joplin 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.