Overall
Diff -1.8 RPP
Lancaster vs Missoula
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Missoula is 1.8% less expensive than Lancaster.
1.8% less expensive
Missoula, MT is 1.8% less expensive than Lancaster, PA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 96.4 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Lancaster buys about the same as $98,156 in Missoula; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Lancaster) vs 96.4 (Missoula)
- $100k in Lancaster ≈ $98,156 purchasing power in Missoula
- Services drives the gap (-35.2 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair PA:MT 98.3→96.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE PA × MT
- 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.
Lancaster
98.3
Cost Index
Missoula
96.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Lancaster, PA and Missoula, MT are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.8 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Missoula is 35.2 points lower. But 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 Lancaster to $98,156 in Missoula, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff -4.7 RPP
Services
Diff -35.2 RPP
Rents
Diff +1.1 RPP
| Category | Lancaster | Missoula | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 96.4 | -1.8 |
| Goods | 100.7 | 96.0 | -4.7 |
| Services | 107.3 | 72.1 | -35.2 |
| Rents | 93.8 | 94.9 | +1.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Lancaster 98.3
Missoula 96.4
Goods
Lancaster 100.7
Missoula 96.0
Services
Lancaster 107.3
Missoula 72.1
Rents
Lancaster 93.8
Missoula 94.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Lancaster and Missoula share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 2.2 to 1.8 RPP points. Lancaster remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 10.4 points between the first and latest shared releases (9.2 to 1.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Lancaster RPP | Missoula RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 100.2 | 98.0 | 2.2 points Lancaster higher |
| 2012 | 97.8 | 93.9 | 3.9 points Lancaster higher |
| 2016 | 99.4 | 95.8 | 3.6 points Lancaster higher |
| 2020 | 97.9 | 93.9 | 4.0 points Lancaster higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 96.4 | 1.8 points Lancaster 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 Lancaster would need to be in Missoula for the same purchasing power:
| In Lancaster | In Missoula | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $49,078 | $-922 |
| $75,000 | $73,617 | $-1,383 |
| $100,000 | $98,156 | $-1,844 |
| $150,000 | $147,234 | $-2,766 |
$ in Lancaster = in Missoula
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 96.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Missoula more expensive than Lancaster?
Missoula is 1.8% less expensive than Lancaster. The overall cost index is 96.4 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Missoula equals $100K in Lancaster?
A $100,000 salary in Lancaster has the same purchasing power as $98,156 in Missoula. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Lancaster and Missoula?
Rents in Lancaster are indexed at 93.8 while Missoula is at 94.9 (national average = 100). Missoula 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.