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St. Cloud vs Decatur

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Decatur is 0.5% less expensive than St. Cloud.

0.5% less expensive

Decatur, AL is 0.5% less expensive than St. Cloud, MN on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 87.2 vs 87.6). A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud buys about the same as $99,521 in Decatur; the largest component gap is rents.

  • Overall RPP 87.6 (St. Cloud) vs 87.2 (Decatur)
  • $100k in St. Cloud ≈ $99,521 purchasing power in Decatur
  • Rents drives the gap (-7.0 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair MN:AL 87.6→87.2

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE MN × AL
  • 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
Decatur
87.2
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

St. Cloud, MN and Decatur, AL are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.4 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.

Rents creates the largest separation: Decatur is 7.0 points lower. But goods 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 $99,521 in Decatur.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
St. Cloud
87.6
Decatur
87.2
Goods
St. Cloud
95.4
Decatur
96.4
Services
St. Cloud
88.7
Decatur
84.7
Rents
St. Cloud
65.1
Decatur
58.1

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in St. Cloud would need to be in Decatur for the same purchasing power:

In St. Cloud In Decatur Difference
$50,000 $49,760 $-240
$75,000 $74,641 $-359
$100,000 $99,521 $-479
$150,000 $149,281 $-719
$ in St. Cloud = – in Decatur

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (87.6 → 87.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Decatur → St. Cloud St. Cloud Details Decatur Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Decatur more expensive than St. Cloud?

Decatur is 0.5% less expensive than St. Cloud. The overall cost index is 87.2 vs 87.6 (national average = 100).

What salary in Decatur equals $100K in St. Cloud?

A $100,000 salary in St. Cloud has the same purchasing power as $99,521 in Decatur. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between St. Cloud and Decatur?

Rents in St. Cloud are indexed at 65.1 while Decatur is at 58.1 (national average = 100). St. Cloud has higher rents.

Data sources

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.