Oklahoma City vs Elizabethtown

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Elizabethtown is 0.2% more expensive than Oklahoma City.

0.2% more expensive

Elizabethtown, KY is 0.2% more expensive than Oklahoma City, OK on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 90.6 vs 90.4). A $100,000 salary in Oklahoma City buys about the same as $100,181 in Elizabethtown; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 90.4 (Oklahoma City) vs 90.6 (Elizabethtown)
  • $100k in Oklahoma City ≈ $100,181 purchasing power in Elizabethtown
  • Rents drives the gap (-7.2 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair OK:KY 90.4→90.6

PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE OK × KY
  • 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.

Oklahoma City
90.4
Cost Index
Elizabethtown
90.6
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Oklahoma City, OK and Elizabethtown, KY are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.2 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Rents creates the largest separation: Elizabethtown is 7.2 points lower. But rents 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 housing-sensitive move, validate the rent gap first: HUD Fair Market Rent and the actual unit size can overturn what the blended index implies. On the BEA ratio alone, $100,000 in Oklahoma City corresponds to $100,181 in Elizabethtown.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Oklahoma City
90.4
Elizabethtown
90.6
Goods
Oklahoma City
93.8
Elizabethtown
96.2
Services
Oklahoma City
74.1
Elizabethtown
74.6
Rents
Oklahoma City
73.9
Elizabethtown
66.7

Vertical line = national average (100)

How the Price Gap Changed

Oklahoma City and Elizabethtown share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 2.9 to 0.2 RPP points. Elizabethtown remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.7 points between the first and latest shared releases (11.2 to 0.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Oklahoma City RPP Elizabethtown RPP Relative Gap
2008 92.8 90.0 2.9 points Oklahoma City higher
2012 94.8 88.8 6.0 points Oklahoma City higher
2016 94.8 88.8 6.0 points Oklahoma City higher
2020 92.7 88.0 4.7 points Oklahoma City higher
2024 90.4 90.6 0.2 points Elizabethtown 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 Oklahoma City would need to be in Elizabethtown for the same purchasing power:

In Oklahoma City In Elizabethtown Difference
$50,000 $50,091 +$91
$75,000 $75,136 +$136
$100,000 $100,181 +$181
$150,000 $150,272 +$272
$ in Oklahoma City = – in Elizabethtown

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (90.4 → 90.6), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Elizabethtown more expensive than Oklahoma City?

Elizabethtown is 0.2% more expensive than Oklahoma City. The overall cost index is 90.6 vs 90.4 (national average = 100).

What salary in Elizabethtown equals $100K in Oklahoma City?

A $100,000 salary in Oklahoma City has the same purchasing power as $100,181 in Elizabethtown. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Oklahoma City and Elizabethtown?

Rents in Oklahoma City are indexed at 73.9 while Elizabethtown is at 66.7 (national average = 100). Oklahoma City has higher rents.

Data sourced from official public datasets, Regional Price Parities (2024), index where national average = 100. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCost. See our methodology for details.

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.