Overall
- Madison
- 97.3
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 103.6
Diff +6.3 RPP
Madison vs Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 6.5% more expensive than Madison.
6.5% more expensive
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is 6.5% more expensive than Madison, WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.6 vs 97.3). A $100,000 salary in Madison buys about the same as $106,484 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin; the largest component gap is goods.
- Overall RPP 97.3 (Madison) vs 103.6 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin)
- $100k in Madison ≈ $106,484 purchasing power in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- Goods drives the gap (+13.5 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair WI:IL 97.3→103.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE WI × IL
- 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
Goods
- Madison
- 93.8
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 107.3
Diff +13.5 RPP
Services
- Madison
- 89.8
Diff -6.2 RPP
Rents
- Madison
- 99.7
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 112.0
Diff +12.3 RPP
| Category | Madison | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 97.3 | 103.6 | +6.3 |
| Goods | 93.8 | 107.3 | +13.5 |
| Services | 89.8 | 83.6 | -6.2 |
| Rents | 99.7 | 112.0 | +12.3 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Madison 97.3
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 103.6
Goods
Madison 93.8
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 107.3
Services
Madison 89.8
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 83.6
Rents
Madison 99.7
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 112.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Goods creates the largest separation: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 13.5 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is 6.5% more expensive than Madison, WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.3-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is above 100 while Madison 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 goods-led difference, remember that many tradable prices vary less by address than housing or labor-priced services. Use $106,484 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin as the BEA equivalent of $100,000 in Madison, then replace the national basket with your own.
Madison
97.3
Cost Index
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
103.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Madison would need to be in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin for the same purchasing power:
| In Madison | In Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,242 | +$3,242 |
| $75,000 | $79,863 | +$4,863 |
| $100,000 | $106,484 | +$6,484 |
| $150,000 | $159,726 | +$9,726 |
$ in Madison = in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (97.3 → 103.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Madison and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.3 to 6.3 RPP points. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 8.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (21.0 to 12.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Madison RPP | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.1 | 105.4 | 7.3 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2012 | 97.4 | 105.1 | 7.8 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2016 | 95.9 | 103.8 | 7.9 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2020 | 95.9 | 104.5 | 8.6 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2024 | 97.3 | 103.6 | 6.3 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Chicago-Naperville-Elgin more expensive than Madison?
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 6.5% more expensive than Madison. The overall cost index is 103.6 vs 97.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin equals $100K in Madison?
A $100,000 salary in Madison has the same purchasing power as $106,484 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Madison and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
Rents in Madison are indexed at 99.7 while Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is at 112.0 (national average = 100). Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 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.