Overall
- St. Cloud
- 87.6
- Brunswick-St. Simons
- 87.7
Diff +0.1 RPP
St. Cloud vs Brunswick-St. Simons
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Brunswick-St. Simons is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud.
0.1% more expensive
Brunswick-St. Simons, GA is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud, MN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 87.7 vs 87.6). A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud buys about the same as $100,087 in Brunswick-St. Simons; the largest component gap is rents.
- Overall RPP 87.6 (St. Cloud) vs 87.7 (Brunswick-St. Simons)
- $100k in St. Cloud ≈ $100,087 purchasing power in Brunswick-St. Simons
- Rents drives the gap (-8.7 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MN:GA 87.6→87.7
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MN × GA
- 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.
St. Cloud
87.6
Cost Index
Brunswick-St. Simons
87.7
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
St. Cloud, MN and Brunswick-St. Simons, GA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.1 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Rents creates the largest separation: Brunswick-St. Simons is 8.7 points lower. But rents and services 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 St. Cloud corresponds to $100,087 in Brunswick-St. Simons.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- St. Cloud
- 95.4
- Brunswick-St. Simons
- 96.3
Diff +0.8 RPP
Services
- St. Cloud
- 88.7
- Brunswick-St. Simons
- 87.3
Diff -1.4 RPP
Rents
- St. Cloud
- 65.1
- Brunswick-St. Simons
- 56.3
Diff -8.7 RPP
| Category | St. Cloud | Brunswick-St. Simons | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 87.6 | 87.7 | +0.1 |
| Goods | 95.4 | 96.3 | +0.8 |
| Services | 88.7 | 87.3 | -1.4 |
| Rents | 65.1 | 56.3 | -8.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
St. Cloud 87.6
Brunswick-St. Simons 87.7
Goods
St. Cloud 95.4
Brunswick-St. Simons 96.3
Services
St. Cloud 88.7
Brunswick-St. Simons 87.3
Rents
St. Cloud 65.1
Brunswick-St. Simons 56.3
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
St. Cloud and Brunswick-St. Simons share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 9.1 to 0.1 RPP points. Brunswick-St. Simons remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 11.0 points between the first and latest shared releases (19.7 to 8.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | St. Cloud RPP | Brunswick-St. Simons RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 97.3 | 88.2 | 9.1 points St. Cloud higher |
| 2012 | 95.2 | 89.9 | 5.2 points St. Cloud higher |
| 2016 | 93.7 | 89.2 | 4.5 points St. Cloud higher |
| 2020 | 91.5 | 89.0 | 2.5 points St. Cloud higher |
| 2024 | 87.6 | 87.7 | 0.1 points Brunswick-St. Simons 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 St. Cloud would need to be in Brunswick-St. Simons for the same purchasing power:
| In St. Cloud | In Brunswick-St. Simons | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,043 | +$43 |
| $75,000 | $75,065 | +$65 |
| $100,000 | $100,087 | +$87 |
| $150,000 | $150,130 | +$130 |
$ in St. Cloud = in Brunswick-St. Simons
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (87.6 → 87.7), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Brunswick-St. Simons more expensive than St. Cloud?
Brunswick-St. Simons is 0.1% more expensive than St. Cloud. The overall cost index is 87.7 vs 87.6 (national average = 100).
What salary in Brunswick-St. Simons equals $100K in St. Cloud?
A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud has the same purchasing power as $100,087 in Brunswick-St. Simons. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between St. Cloud and Brunswick-St. Simons?
Rents in St. Cloud are indexed at 65.1 while Brunswick-St. Simons is at 56.3 (national average = 100). St. Cloud 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.