Overall
- Madison
- 97.3
Diff +1.6 RPP
Madison vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 1.6% more expensive than Madison.
1.6% more expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 1.6% more expensive than Madison, WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 97.3). A $100,000 salary in Madison buys about the same as $101,614 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 97.3 (Madison) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Madison ≈ $101,614 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Services drives the gap (+19.4 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair WI:NJ 97.3→98.9
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE WI × NJ
- 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.
Madison
97.3
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Madison, WI and Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ are a photo finish on overall price level, only 1.6 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 19.4 points higher. 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 Madison to $101,614 in Atlantic City-Hammonton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Madison
- 93.8
Diff +6.0 RPP
Services
- Madison
- 89.8
- Atlantic City-Hammonton
- 109.2
Diff +19.4 RPP
Rents
- Madison
- 99.7
Diff -1.1 RPP
| Category | Madison | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.3 | 98.9 | +1.6 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 99.8 | +6.0 |
| Services | 89.8 | 109.2 | +19.4 |
| Rents | 99.7 | 98.7 | -1.1 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Madison 97.3
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Madison 93.8
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Madison 89.8
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Madison 99.7
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Madison and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 12.6 to 1.6 RPP points. Atlantic City-Hammonton remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 31.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (30.0 to 1.1 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Madison RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.1 | 110.7 | 12.6 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 97.4 | 104.6 | 7.2 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 95.9 | 102.6 | 6.8 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 95.9 | 101.2 | 5.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2024 | 97.3 | 98.9 | 1.6 points Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 Madison would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Madison | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,807 | +$807 |
| $75,000 | $76,210 | +$1,210 |
| $100,000 | $101,614 | +$1,614 |
| $150,000 | $152,421 | +$2,421 |
$ in Madison = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.3 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Madison?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 1.6% more expensive than Madison. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 97.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Madison?
A $100,000 salary in Madison has the same purchasing power as $101,614 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Madison and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Madison are indexed at 99.7 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (national average = 100). Madison 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.