Overall
- Merced
- 98.3
Diff +6.5 RPP
Merced vs Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.7% more expensive than Merced.
6.7% more expensive
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.7% more expensive than Merced, CA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 104.8 vs 98.3). A $100,000 salary in Merced buys about the same as $106,662 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 98.3 (Merced) vs 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington)
- $100k in Merced ≈ $106,662 purchasing power in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
- Services drives the gap (-64.8 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair CA:MN 98.3→104.8
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE CA × MN
- 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
Diff -2.1 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff -64.8 RPP
Rents
- Merced
- 78.6
Diff +33.2 RPP
| Category | Merced | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 98.3 | 104.8 | +6.5 |
| Goods | 105.2 | 103.1 | -2.1 |
| Services | 158.3 | 93.5 | -64.8 |
| Rents | 78.6 | 111.8 | +33.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Merced 98.3
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Goods
Merced 105.2
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Services
Merced 158.3
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Rents
Merced 78.6
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 64.8 points lower. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI is 6.7% more expensive than Merced, CA, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.5-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 $106,662 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Merced would need to be in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington for the same purchasing power:
| In Merced | In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,331 | +$3,331 |
| $75,000 | $79,996 | +$4,996 |
| $100,000 | $106,662 | +$6,662 |
| $150,000 | $159,993 | +$9,993 |
$ in Merced = in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (98.3 → 104.8), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Merced and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 8.7 to 6.5 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 49.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (15.6 to 64.8 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Merced RPP | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 94.3 | 102.9 | 8.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2012 | 98.6 | 101.2 | 2.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2016 | 95.3 | 102.3 | 7.0 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2020 | 98.7 | 102.4 | 3.7 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 98.3 | 104.8 | 6.5 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington more expensive than Merced?
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is 6.7% more expensive than Merced. The overall cost index is 104.8 vs 98.3 (national average = 100).
What salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington equals $100K in Merced?
A $100,000 salary in Merced has the same purchasing power as $106,662 in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Merced and Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Rents in Merced are indexed at 78.6 while Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is at 111.8 (national average = 100). Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 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.