Overall
Diff -6.0 RPP
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington vs Atlantic City-Hammonton
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Atlantic City-Hammonton is 5.7% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington.
5.7% less expensive
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 5.7% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.9 vs 104.8). A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington buys about the same as $94,309 in Atlantic City-Hammonton; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 104.8 (Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington) vs 98.9 (Atlantic City-Hammonton)
- $100k in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington ≈ $94,309 purchasing power in Atlantic City-Hammonton
- Services drives the gap (+15.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:NJ 104.8→98.9
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MN × NJ
- 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
| Category | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 104.8 | 98.9 | -6.0 |
| Goods | 103.1 | 99.8 | -3.3 |
| Services | 93.5 | 109.2 | +15.7 |
| Rents | 111.8 | 98.7 | -13.2 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 104.8
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.9
Goods
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 103.1
Atlantic City-Hammonton 99.8
Services
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 93.5
Atlantic City-Hammonton 109.2
Rents
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington 111.8
Atlantic City-Hammonton 98.7
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Atlantic City-Hammonton is 15.7 points higher. But services move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Atlantic City-Hammonton, NJ is 5.7% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.0-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington is above 100 while Atlantic City-Hammonton 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 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington to $94,309 in Atlantic City-Hammonton, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington
104.8
Cost Index
Atlantic City-Hammonton
98.9
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington would need to be in Atlantic City-Hammonton for the same purchasing power:
| In Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington | In Atlantic City-Hammonton | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $47,155 | $-2,845 |
| $75,000 | $70,732 | $-4,268 |
| $100,000 | $94,309 | $-5,691 |
| $150,000 | $141,464 | $-8,536 |
$ in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington = in Atlantic City-Hammonton
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (104.8 → 98.9), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Atlantic City-Hammonton share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 7.8 to 6.0 RPP points. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 26.2 points between the first and latest shared releases (13.0 to 13.2 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington RPP | Atlantic City-Hammonton RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 102.9 | 110.7 | 7.8 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2012 | 101.2 | 104.6 | 3.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2016 | 102.3 | 102.6 | 0.3 points Atlantic City-Hammonton higher |
| 2020 | 102.4 | 101.2 | 1.2 points Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington higher |
| 2024 | 104.8 | 98.9 | 6.0 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 Atlantic City-Hammonton more expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
Atlantic City-Hammonton is 5.7% less expensive than Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. The overall cost index is 98.9 vs 104.8 (national average = 100).
What salary in Atlantic City-Hammonton equals $100K in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington?
A $100,000 salary in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington has the same purchasing power as $94,309 in Atlantic City-Hammonton. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington and Atlantic City-Hammonton?
Rents in Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington are indexed at 111.8 while Atlantic City-Hammonton is at 98.7 (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.