Overall
Diff +0.2 RPP
Lakeland-Winter Haven vs Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is 0.2% more expensive than Lakeland-Winter Haven.
0.2% more expensive
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC is 0.2% more expensive than Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 97.3 vs 97.1). A $100,000 salary in Lakeland-Winter Haven buys about the same as $100,213 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 97.1 (Lakeland-Winter Haven) vs 97.3 (Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia)
- $100k in Lakeland-Winter Haven ≈ $100,213 purchasing power in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
- Services drives the gap (+2.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair FL:NC 97.1→97.3
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE FL × 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.
Lakeland-Winter Haven
97.1
Cost Index
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
97.3
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC 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 leads the difference, with Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 2.3 points higher than Lakeland-Winter Haven. 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 Lakeland-Winter Haven to $100,213 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +0.3 RPP
Services
Diff +2.3 RPP
Rents
Diff +1.7 RPP
| Category | Lakeland-Winter Haven | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.1 | 97.3 | +0.2 |
| Goods | 96.2 | 96.6 | +0.3 |
| Services | 86.9 | 89.2 | +2.3 |
| Rents | 95.9 | 97.6 | +1.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Lakeland-Winter Haven 97.1
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 97.3
Goods
Lakeland-Winter Haven 96.2
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 96.6
Services
Lakeland-Winter Haven 86.9
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 89.2
Rents
Lakeland-Winter Haven 95.9
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia 97.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Lakeland-Winter Haven and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 1.6 to 0.2 RPP points. Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (8.8 to 2.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Lakeland-Winter Haven RPP | Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 96.9 | 95.3 | 1.6 points Lakeland-Winter Haven higher |
| 2012 | 96.1 | 96.1 | 0.1 points Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia higher |
| 2016 | 96.4 | 96.9 | 0.5 points Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia higher |
| 2020 | 93.3 | 94.2 | 0.9 points Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia higher |
| 2024 | 97.1 | 97.3 | 0.2 points Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia higher |
Annual BEA Regional Price Parity releases; a higher index means a higher price level relative to the national average of 100. Selected years shown from the full shared series.
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Lakeland-Winter Haven would need to be in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia for the same purchasing power:
| In Lakeland-Winter Haven | In Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,107 | +$107 |
| $75,000 | $75,160 | +$160 |
| $100,000 | $100,213 | +$213 |
| $150,000 | $150,320 | +$320 |
$ in Lakeland-Winter Haven = in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.1 → 97.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia more expensive than Lakeland-Winter Haven?
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is 0.2% more expensive than Lakeland-Winter Haven. The overall cost index is 97.3 vs 97.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia equals $100K in Lakeland-Winter Haven?
A $100,000 salary in Lakeland-Winter Haven has the same purchasing power as $100,213 in Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Lakeland-Winter Haven and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia?
Rents in Lakeland-Winter Haven are indexed at 95.9 while Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia is at 97.6 (national average = 100). Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia has higher rents.
Data sources
- BEA Regional Price Parities (RPP), the cost-of-living indices shown on this page
- U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (ACS), gross-rent observations behind the rents component
- BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI), goods and services price relatives
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), labor-driven services component
- HUD Fair Market Rents (FMR), 40th-percentile rent cross-reference
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.