Overall
- Missoula
- 96.4
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff +6.8 RPP
Missoula vs Fairbanks-College
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fairbanks-College is 7% more expensive than Missoula.
7% more expensive
Fairbanks-College, AK is 7% more expensive than Missoula, MT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.2 vs 96.4). A $100,000 salary in Missoula buys about the same as $107,012 in Fairbanks-College; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 96.4 (Missoula) vs 103.2 (Fairbanks-College)
- $100k in Missoula ≈ $107,012 purchasing power in Fairbanks-College
- Services drives the gap (+47.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MT:AK 96.4→103.2
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE MT × AK
- 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
- Missoula
- 96.0
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff +11.3 RPP
Services
- Missoula
- 72.1
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff +47.7 RPP
Rents
- Missoula
- 94.9
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff -2.4 RPP
| Category | Missoula | Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 96.4 | 103.2 | +6.8 |
| Goods | 96.0 | 107.3 | +11.3 |
| Services | 72.1 | 119.8 | +47.7 |
| Rents | 94.9 | 92.6 | -2.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Missoula 96.4
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Goods
Missoula 96.0
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Services
Missoula 72.1
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Rents
Missoula 94.9
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Fairbanks-College is 47.7 points higher. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Fairbanks-College, AK is 7% more expensive than Missoula, MT, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.8-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Missoula 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 Missoula to $107,012 in Fairbanks-College, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Missoula
96.4
Cost Index
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Missoula would need to be in Fairbanks-College for the same purchasing power:
| In Missoula | In Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,506 | +$3,506 |
| $75,000 | $80,259 | +$5,259 |
| $100,000 | $107,012 | +$7,012 |
| $150,000 | $160,518 | +$10,518 |
$ in Missoula = in Fairbanks-College
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (96.4 → 103.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Missoula and Fairbanks-College share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap held broadly steady, moving from 6.7 to 6.8 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 38.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (36.2 to 2.4 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Missoula RPP | Fairbanks-College RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.0 | 104.7 | 6.7 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 93.9 | 97.9 | 4.0 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2016 | 95.8 | 100.4 | 4.6 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 93.9 | 99.4 | 5.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 96.4 | 103.2 | 6.8 points Fairbanks-College 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 Fairbanks-College more expensive than Missoula?
Fairbanks-College is 7% more expensive than Missoula. The overall cost index is 103.2 vs 96.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Fairbanks-College equals $100K in Missoula?
A $100,000 salary in Missoula has the same purchasing power as $107,012 in Fairbanks-College. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Missoula and Fairbanks-College?
Rents in Missoula are indexed at 94.9 while Fairbanks-College is at 92.6 (national average = 100). Missoula 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.