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Helena vs Wilmington

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Wilmington is 0.8% more expensive than Helena.

0.8% more expensive

Wilmington, NC is 0.8% more expensive than Helena, MT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.4 vs 95.7). A $100,000 salary in Helena buys about the same as $100,781 in Wilmington; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 95.7 (Helena) vs 96.4 (Wilmington)
  • $100k in Helena ≈ $100,781 purchasing power in Wilmington
  • Services drives the gap (+15.3 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair MT:NC 95.7→96.4

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE MT × NC
  • 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.

Helena
95.7
Cost Index
Wilmington
96.4
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Helena, MT and Wilmington, NC are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.7 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services leads the difference, with Wilmington 15.3 points higher than Helena. 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 Helena to $100,781 in Wilmington, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Helena
95.7
Wilmington
96.4
Goods
Helena
96.0
Wilmington
96.6
Services
Helena
72.6
Wilmington
87.9
Rents
Helena
90.1
Wilmington
93.2

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Helena would need to be in Wilmington for the same purchasing power:

In Helena In Wilmington Difference
$50,000 $50,390 +$390
$75,000 $75,586 +$586
$100,000 $100,781 +$781
$150,000 $151,171 +$1,171
$ in Helena = – in Wilmington

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (95.7 → 96.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Wilmington → Helena Helena Details Wilmington Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Wilmington more expensive than Helena?

Wilmington is 0.8% more expensive than Helena. The overall cost index is 96.4 vs 95.7 (national average = 100).

What salary in Wilmington equals $100K in Helena?

A $100,000 salary in Helena has the same purchasing power as $100,781 in Wilmington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Helena and Wilmington?

Rents in Helena are indexed at 90.1 while Wilmington is at 93.2 (national average = 100). Wilmington 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.