Overall
- Rapid City
- 89.2
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff +14.0 RPP
Rapid City vs Fairbanks-College
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fairbanks-College is 15.8% more expensive than Rapid City.
15.8% more expensive
Fairbanks-College, AK is 15.8% more expensive than Rapid City, SD on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.2 vs 89.2). A $100,000 salary in Rapid City buys about the same as $115,756 in Fairbanks-College; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 89.2 (Rapid City) vs 103.2 (Fairbanks-College)
- $100k in Rapid City ≈ $115,756 purchasing power in Fairbanks-College
- Services drives the gap (+40.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair SD:AK 89.2→103.2
TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · SERVICES-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-STEEP
- TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
- CROSS-STATE SD × AK
- SERVICES-LED Services-led gap
- BENCH-CROSS Benchmark cross
- PP-STEEP Steep PP convert
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.
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Rapid City, SD and Fairbanks-College, AK sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 14.0 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Rapid City is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.
Services leads the difference, with Fairbanks-College 40.7 points higher than Rapid City. Goods, services, and rents all point in the same broad direction, making the headline comparison more transferable across household types.
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 Rapid City to $115,756 in Fairbanks-College, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- Rapid City
- 95.5
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff +11.9 RPP
Services
- Rapid City
- 79.1
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff +40.7 RPP
Rents
- Rapid City
- 72.6
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff +20.0 RPP
| Category | Rapid City | Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 89.2 | 103.2 | +14.0 |
| Goods | 95.5 | 107.3 | +11.9 |
| Services | 79.1 | 119.8 | +40.7 |
| Rents | 72.6 | 92.6 | +20.0 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Rapid City 89.2
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Goods
Rapid City 95.5
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Services
Rapid City 79.1
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Rents
Rapid City 72.6
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Rapid City would need to be in Fairbanks-College for the same purchasing power:
| In Rapid City | In Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $57,878 | +$7,878 |
| $75,000 | $86,817 | +$11,817 |
| $100,000 | $115,756 | +$15,756 |
| $150,000 | $173,634 | +$23,634 |
$ in Rapid City = in Fairbanks-College
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (89.2 → 103.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Rapid City
89.2
Cost Index
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Fairbanks-College more expensive than Rapid City?
Fairbanks-College is 15.8% more expensive than Rapid City. The overall cost index is 103.2 vs 89.2 (national average = 100).
What salary in Fairbanks-College equals $100K in Rapid City?
A $100,000 salary in Rapid City has the same purchasing power as $115,756 in Fairbanks-College. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Rapid City and Fairbanks-College?
Rents in Rapid City are indexed at 72.6 while Fairbanks-College is at 92.6 (national average = 100). Fairbanks-College 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.