Overall
- St. Joseph
- 86.4
- Sioux City
- 86.5
Diff +0.1 RPP
St. Joseph vs Sioux City
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Sioux City is 0.1% more expensive than St. Joseph.
0.1% more expensive
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD is 0.1% more expensive than St. Joseph, MO-KS on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 86.5 vs 86.4). A $100,000 salary in St. Joseph buys about the same as $100,083 in Sioux City; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 86.4 (St. Joseph) vs 86.5 (Sioux City)
- $100k in St. Joseph ≈ $100,083 purchasing power in Sioux City
- Services drives the gap (-5.6 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MO:IA 86.4→86.5
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MO × IA
- 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. Joseph
86.4
Cost Index
Sioux City
86.5
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
St. Joseph, MO-KS and Sioux City, IA-NE-SD 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.
Services creates the largest separation: Sioux City is 5.6 points lower. But services and 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 service-heavy household, test childcare, health, and other locally supplied costs before relying on rent alone. The BEA ratio converts $100,000 in St. Joseph to $100,083 in Sioux City, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
- St. Joseph
- 94.2
- Sioux City
- 94.0
Diff -0.2 RPP
Services
- St. Joseph
- 88.3
- Sioux City
- 82.7
Diff -5.6 RPP
Rents
- St. Joseph
- 55.4
- Sioux City
- 57.8
Diff +2.5 RPP
| Category | St. Joseph | Sioux City | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 86.4 | 86.5 | +0.1 |
| Goods | 94.2 | 94.0 | -0.2 |
| Services | 88.3 | 82.7 | -5.6 |
| Rents | 55.4 | 57.8 | +2.5 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
St. Joseph 86.4
Sioux City 86.5
Goods
St. Joseph 94.2
Sioux City 94.0
Services
St. Joseph 88.3
Sioux City 82.7
Rents
St. Joseph 55.4
Sioux City 57.8
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
St. Joseph and Sioux City share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 1.1 to 0.1 RPP points. Sioux City remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 7.5 points between the first and latest shared releases (2.0 to 5.6 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | St. Joseph RPP | Sioux City RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 92.6 | 91.5 | 1.1 points St. Joseph higher |
| 2012 | 91.0 | 91.1 | 0.1 points Sioux City higher |
| 2016 | 88.7 | 90.2 | 1.6 points Sioux City higher |
| 2020 | 87.8 | 90.5 | 2.8 points Sioux City higher |
| 2024 | 86.4 | 86.5 | 0.1 points Sioux City 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. Joseph would need to be in Sioux City for the same purchasing power:
| In St. Joseph | In Sioux City | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,042 | +$42 |
| $75,000 | $75,063 | +$63 |
| $100,000 | $100,083 | +$83 |
| $150,000 | $150,125 | +$125 |
$ in St. Joseph = in Sioux City
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (86.4 → 86.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Sioux City more expensive than St. Joseph?
Sioux City is 0.1% more expensive than St. Joseph. The overall cost index is 86.5 vs 86.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Sioux City equals $100K in St. Joseph?
A $100,000 salary in St. Joseph has the same purchasing power as $100,083 in Sioux City. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between St. Joseph and Sioux City?
Rents in St. Joseph are indexed at 55.4 while Sioux City is at 57.8 (national average = 100). Sioux City 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.