Rome vs Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is 26.6% more expensive than Rome.

26.6% more expensive

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL is 26.6% more expensive than Rome, GA on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 114.2 vs 90.2). A $100,000 salary in Rome buys about the same as $126,612 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 90.2 (Rome) vs 114.2 (Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach)
  • $100k in Rome ≈ $126,612 purchasing power in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
  • Rents drives the gap (+95.3 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair GA:FL 90.2→114.2

TIER-GAP · CROSS-STATE · RENT-LED · BENCH-CROSS · PP-STEEP

  • TIER-GAP Clear tier gap
  • CROSS-STATE GA × FL
  • RENT-LED Rent-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.

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Rome would need to be in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach for the same purchasing power:

In Rome In Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach Difference
$50,000 $63,306 +$13,306
$75,000 $94,959 +$19,959
$100,000 $126,612 +$26,612
$150,000 $189,919 +$39,919
$ in Rome = in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (90.2 → 114.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Rome, GA and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL sit in clearly different price tiers, separated by 24.0 RPP points. At this distance, treating the same nominal salary as equivalent would materially change purchasing power.

This route crosses the national benchmark: Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is above 100 while Rome is below it. That makes the move a change of price regime, not merely a rank swap.

Rents leads the difference, with Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach 95.3 points higher than Rome. 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 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 Rome corresponds to $126,612 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Rome
90.2
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Goods
Rome
96.3
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
103.6
Services
Rome
90.7
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
97.2
Rents
Rome
60.3
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
155.6

Vertical line = national average (100)

Rome
90.2
Cost Index
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach
114.2
Cost Index

How the Price Gap Changed

Rome and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap widened, moving from 18.5 to 24.0 RPP points. Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.

Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 12.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (19.3 to 6.5 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.

Release Year Rome RPP Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach RPP Relative Gap
2008 88.0 106.5 18.5 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2012 86.3 107.5 21.2 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2016 88.3 107.9 19.7 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2020 86.3 109.5 23.2 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach higher
2024 90.2 114.2 24.0 points Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach 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 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach more expensive than Rome?

Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is 26.6% more expensive than Rome. The overall cost index is 114.2 vs 90.2 (national average = 100).

What salary in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach equals $100K in Rome?

A $100,000 salary in Rome has the same purchasing power as $126,612 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Rome and Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach?

Rents in Rome are indexed at 60.3 while Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach is at 155.6 (national average = 100). Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach 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.