Overall
- Mankato
- 91.0
Diff +0.4 RPP
Mankato vs Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers is 0.4% more expensive than Mankato.
0.4% more expensive
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR is 0.4% more expensive than Mankato, MN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 91.4 vs 91.0). A $100,000 salary in Mankato buys about the same as $100,438 in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 91.0 (Mankato) vs 91.4 (Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers)
- $100k in Mankato ≈ $100,438 purchasing power in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
- Services drives the gap (-11.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:AR 91.0→91.4
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MN × AR
- 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.
Mankato
91.0
Cost Index
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
91.4
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Mankato, MN and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers is 11.9 points lower. But services and rents and goods 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 Mankato to $100,438 in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Mankato
- 95.4
Diff -1.9 RPP
Services
- Mankato
- 87.0
Diff -11.9 RPP
Rents
- Mankato
- 79.9
Diff -3.0 RPP
| Category | Mankato | Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 91.0 | 91.4 | +0.4 |
| Goods | 95.4 | 93.6 | -1.9 |
| Services | 87.0 | 75.1 | -11.9 |
| Rents | 79.9 | 76.9 | -3.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Mankato 91.0
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 91.4
Goods
Mankato 95.4
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 93.6
Services
Mankato 87.0
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 75.1
Rents
Mankato 79.9
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 76.9
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
Mankato and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.5 to 0.4 RPP points. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Goods changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 22.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (20.1 to 1.9 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Mankato RPP | Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 85.1 | 92.6 | 7.5 points Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers higher |
| 2012 | 94.5 | 94.3 | 0.2 points Mankato higher |
| 2016 | 88.6 | 94.3 | 5.7 points Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers higher |
| 2020 | 91.2 | 92.7 | 1.5 points Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers higher |
| 2024 | 91.0 | 91.4 | 0.4 points Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers 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 Mankato would need to be in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers for the same purchasing power:
| In Mankato | In Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,219 | +$219 |
| $75,000 | $75,328 | +$328 |
| $100,000 | $100,438 | +$438 |
| $150,000 | $150,656 | +$656 |
$ in Mankato = in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (91.0 → 91.4), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers more expensive than Mankato?
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers is 0.4% more expensive than Mankato. The overall cost index is 91.4 vs 91.0 (national average = 100).
What salary in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers equals $100K in Mankato?
A $100,000 salary in Mankato has the same purchasing power as $100,438 in Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Mankato and Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers?
Rents in Mankato are indexed at 79.9 while Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers is at 76.9 (national average = 100). Mankato 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.