Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 103.6
Diff +5.3 RPP
Merced vs Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 5.4% more expensive than Merced.
5.4% more expensive
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN is 5.4% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.6 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $105,413 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 103.6 (Chicago-Naperville-Elgin)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $105,413 purchasing power in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- Services drives the gap (-74.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:IL 98.3→103.6
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × 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
- Merced
- 105.2
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 107.3
Diff +2.1 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff -74.8 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
- Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
- 112.0
Diff +33.4 RPP
| Category | Merced | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 103.6 | +5.3 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 107.3 | +2.1 |
| Services | 158.3 | 83.6 | -74.8 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 112.0 | +33.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 103.6
Goods
Merced 105.2
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 107.3
Services
Merced 158.3
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 83.6
Rents
Merced 78.6
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin 112.0
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 74.8 points lower. 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 5.4% more expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 5.3-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is above 100 while Merced 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in Merced to $105,413 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
103.6
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Chicago-Naperville-Elgin | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $52,707 | +$2,707 |
| $75,000 | $79,060 | +$4,060 |
| $100,000 | $105,413 | +$5,413 |
| $150,000 | $158,120 | +$8,120 |
$ in Merced = in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 103.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 11.2 to 5.3 RPP points. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 68.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (6.8 to 74.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Chicago-Naperville-Elgin RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 105.4 | 11.2 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 105.1 | 6.5 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 103.8 | 8.5 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 104.5 | 5.7 points Chicago-Naperville-Elgin higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 103.6 | 5.3 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 Merced?
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin is 5.4% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 103.6 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $105,413 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 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.