Knoxville vs Naples-Marco Island

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Naples-Marco Island is 11.5% more expensive than Knoxville.

11.5% more expensive

Naples-Marco Island, FL is 11.5% more expensive than Knoxville, TN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.2 vs 92.6). A $100,000 salary in Knoxville buys about the same as $111,484 in Naples-Marco Island; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 92.6 (Knoxville) vs 103.2 (Naples-Marco Island)
  • $100k in Knoxville ≈ $111,484 purchasing power in Naples-Marco Island
  • Rents drives the gap (+46.7 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair TN:FL 92.6→103.2

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE TN × FL
  • SPLIT-BUDGET Split budget
  • BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
  • PP-SHIFT PP shift

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
Knoxville
92.6
Naples-Marco Island
103.2
Goods
Knoxville
96.2
Naples-Marco Island
96.2
Services
Knoxville
71.9
Naples-Marco Island
87.8
Rents
Knoxville
82.8
Naples-Marco Island
129.4

Vertical line = national average (100)

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rents creates the largest separation: Naples-Marco Island is 46.7 points higher. But goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.

Knoxville, TN and Naples-Marco Island, FL sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 10.6 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Naples-Marco Island is above 100 while Knoxville is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Comparable population context is incomplete for this pair, so no market-scale explanation is inferred from the price indexes.

For a housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Knoxville corresponds to $111,484 in Naples-Marco Island.

Knoxville
92.6
Cost Index
Naples-Marco Island
103.2
Cost Index

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Knoxville would need to be in Naples-Marco Island for the same purchasing power:

In Knoxville In Naples-Marco Island Difference
$50,000 $55,742 +$5,742
$75,000 $83,613 +$8,613
$100,000 $111,484 +$11,484
$150,000 $167,227 +$17,227
$ in Knoxville = in Naples-Marco Island

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (92.6 → 103.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Naples-Marco Island more expensive than Knoxville?

Naples-Marco Island is 11.5% more expensive than Knoxville. The overall cost index is 103.2 vs 92.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Naples-Marco Island equals $100K in Knoxville?

A $100,000 salary in Knoxville has the same purchasing power as $111,484 in Naples-Marco Island. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Knoxville and Naples-Marco Island?

Rents in Knoxville are indexed at 82.8 while Naples-Marco Island is at 129.4 (national average = 100). Naples-Marco Island has higher rents.

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.