Overall
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 100.9
- Merced
- 98.3
Diff -2.6 RPP
Salt Lake City-Murray vs Merced
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Merced is 2.6% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray.
2.6% less expensive
Merced, CA is 2.6% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 98.3 vs 100.9). A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray buys about the same as $97,429 in Merced; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 100.9 (Salt Lake City-Murray) vs 98.3 (Merced)
- $100k in Salt Lake City-Murray ≈ $97,429 purchasing power in Merced
- Services drives the gap (+79.3 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair UT:CA 100.9→98.3
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE UT × CA
- 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
- Merced
- 105.2
Diff +8.7 RPP
Services
- Merced
- 158.3
Diff +79.3 RPP
Rents
- Salt Lake City-Murray
- 123.3
- Merced
- 78.6
Diff -44.7 RPP
| Category | Salt Lake City-Murray | Merced | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 100.9 | 98.3 | -2.6 |
| Goods | 96.4 | 105.2 | +8.7 |
| Services | 79.0 | 158.3 | +79.3 |
| Rents | 123.3 | 78.6 | -44.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Salt Lake City-Murray 100.9
Merced 98.3
Goods
Salt Lake City-Murray 96.4
Merced 105.2
Services
Salt Lake City-Murray 79.0
Merced 158.3
Rents
Salt Lake City-Murray 123.3
Merced 78.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Merced is 79.3 points higher. But services and goods move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Merced, CA is 2.6% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray, UT, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 2.6-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Salt Lake City-Murray is above 100 while Merced 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 Salt Lake City-Murray to $97,429 in Merced, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Salt Lake City-Murray
100.9
Cost Index
Merced
98.3
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Salt Lake City-Murray would need to be in Merced for the same purchasing power:
| In Salt Lake City-Murray | In Merced | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $48,715 | $-1,285 |
| $75,000 | $73,072 | $-1,928 |
| $100,000 | $97,429 | $-2,571 |
| $150,000 | $146,144 | $-3,856 |
$ in Salt Lake City-Murray = in Merced
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (100.9 → 98.3), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Salt Lake City-Murray and Merced share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 4.2 to 2.6 RPP points. Salt Lake City-Murray remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 48.3 points between the first and latest shared releases (31.1 to 79.3 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Salt Lake City-Murray RPP | Merced RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 98.5 | 94.3 | 4.2 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2012 | 102.2 | 98.6 | 3.6 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2016 | 98.3 | 95.3 | 3.0 points Salt Lake City-Murray higher |
| 2020 | 97.3 | 98.7 | 1.5 points Merced higher |
| 2024 | 100.9 | 98.3 | 2.6 points Salt Lake City-Murray 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 Merced more expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray?
Merced is 2.6% less expensive than Salt Lake City-Murray. The overall cost index is 98.3 vs 100.9 (national average = 100).
What salary in Merced equals $100K in Salt Lake City-Murray?
A $100,000 salary in Salt Lake City-Murray has the same purchasing power as $97,429 in Merced. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Salt Lake City-Murray and Merced?
Rents in Salt Lake City-Murray are indexed at 123.3 while Merced is at 78.6 (national average = 100). Salt Lake City-Murray 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.