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Jonesboro vs Fort Smith

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fort Smith is 0% more expensive than Jonesboro.

0% more expensive

Fort Smith, AR-OK is 0% more expensive than Jonesboro, AR on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 85.9 vs 85.9). A $100,000 salary in Jonesboro buys about the same as $100,014 in Fort Smith; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 85.9 (Jonesboro) vs 85.9 (Fort Smith)
  • $100k in Jonesboro ≈ $100,014 purchasing power in Fort Smith
  • Services drives the gap (-1.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair AR:AR 85.9→85.9

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • SAME-STATE Same state · AR
  • 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.

Jonesboro
85.9
Cost Index
Fort Smith
85.9
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Jonesboro, AR and Fort Smith, AR-OK are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.0 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Services creates the largest separation: Fort Smith is 1.2 points lower. But services 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 Jonesboro to $100,014 in Fort Smith, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Jonesboro
85.9
Fort Smith
85.9
Goods
Jonesboro
93.6
Fort Smith
93.6
Services
Jonesboro
75.0
Fort Smith
73.8
Rents
Jonesboro
53.8
Fort Smith
53.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

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

In Jonesboro In Fort Smith Difference
$50,000 $50,007 +$7
$75,000 $75,010 +$10
$100,000 $100,014 +$14
$150,000 $150,021 +$21
$ in Jonesboro = – in Fort Smith

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

Reverse: Fort Smith → Jonesboro Jonesboro Details Fort Smith Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Fort Smith more expensive than Jonesboro?

Fort Smith is 0% more expensive than Jonesboro. The overall cost index is 85.9 vs 85.9 (national average = 100).

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

A $100,000 salary in Jonesboro has the same purchasing power as $100,014 in Fort Smith. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Jonesboro and Fort Smith?

Rents in Jonesboro are indexed at 53.8 while Fort Smith is at 53.4 (national average = 100). Jonesboro 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.