Overall
- Champaign-Urbana
- 92.7
Diff -0.2 RPP
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Champaign-Urbana is 0.2% less expensive than Greensboro-High Point.
Champaign-Urbana, IL is 0.2% less expensive than Greensboro-High Point, NC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 92.7 vs 92.9). A $100,000 salary in Greensboro-High Point buys about the same as $99,827 in Champaign-Urbana; the largest component gap is goods.
RPP parity plate
Pair NC:IL 92.9→92.7
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-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.
Greensboro-High Point, NC and Champaign-Urbana, IL 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.
Goods creates the largest separation: Champaign-Urbana is 3.0 points lower. But services 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $99,827 in Champaign-Urbana as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Greensboro-High Point, then replace the national basket with your own.
Diff -0.2 RPP
Diff -3.0 RPP
Diff +1.4 RPP
Diff -2.9 RPP
| Category | Greensboro-High Point | Champaign-Urbana | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 92.9 | 92.7 | -0.2 |
| Goods | 96.6 | 93.6 | -3.0 |
| Services | 89.1 | 90.5 | +1.4 |
| Rents | 74.5 | 71.6 | -2.9 |
Vertical line = national average (100)
What a salary in Greensboro-High Point would need to be in Champaign-Urbana for the same purchasing power:
| In Greensboro-High Point | In Champaign-Urbana | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,913 | $-87 |
| $75,000 | $74,870 | $-130 |
| $100,000 | $99,827 | $-173 |
| $150,000 | $149,740 | $-260 |
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (92.9 → 92.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Champaign-Urbana is 0.2% less expensive than Greensboro-High Point. The overall cost index is 92.7 vs 92.9 (national average = 100).
A $100,000 salary in Greensboro-High Point has the same purchasing power as $99,827 in Champaign-Urbana. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
Rents in Greensboro-High Point are indexed at 74.5 while Champaign-Urbana is at 71.6 (national average = 100). Greensboro-High Point has higher rents.
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.