Overall
Diff +0.5 RPP
St. Louis vs Yakima
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Yakima is 0.5% more expensive than St. Louis.
0.5% more expensive
Yakima, WA is 0.5% more expensive than St. Louis, MO-IL on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 95.5 vs 95.1). A $100,000 salary in St. Louis buys about the same as $100,481 in Yakima; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 95.1 (St. Louis) vs 95.5 (Yakima)
- $100k in St. Louis ≈ $100,481 purchasing power in Yakima
- Services drives the gap (+22.0 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair MO:WA 95.1→95.5
PHOTO-FINISH · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BOTH-BELOW · PP-PAR
- PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
- CROSS-STATE MO × WA
- 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. Louis
95.1
Cost Index
Yakima
95.5
Cost Index
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
St. Louis, MO-IL and Yakima, WA are a photo finish on overall price level, only 0.5 RPP points apart. A salary conversion is therefore a fine adjustment, not evidence of a fundamentally different cost regime.
Services creates the largest separation: Yakima is 22.0 points higher. But rents 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. Louis to $100,481 in Yakima, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Category Breakdown
Goods
Diff +5.0 RPP
Services
Diff +22.0 RPP
Rents
Diff -6.4 RPP
| Category | St. Louis | Yakima | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 95.1 | 95.5 | +0.5 |
| Goods | 100.0 | 105.0 | +5.0 |
| Services | 69.9 | 91.9 | +22.0 |
| Rents | 79.0 | 72.6 | -6.4 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
St. Louis 95.1
Yakima 95.5
Goods
St. Louis 100.0
Yakima 105.0
Services
St. Louis 69.9
Yakima 91.9
Rents
St. Louis 79.0
Yakima 72.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
How the Price Gap Changed
St. Louis and Yakima share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 2.0 to 0.5 RPP points. Yakima remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Services changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 27.1 points between the first and latest shared releases (5.1 to 22.0 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | St. Louis RPP | Yakima RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 91.0 | 93.0 | 2.0 points Yakima higher |
| 2012 | 94.5 | 97.1 | 2.6 points Yakima higher |
| 2016 | 94.5 | 94.4 | 0.2 points St. Louis higher |
| 2020 | 95.2 | 96.2 | 1.0 points Yakima higher |
| 2024 | 95.1 | 95.5 | 0.5 points Yakima 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. Louis would need to be in Yakima for the same purchasing power:
| In St. Louis | In Yakima | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $50,240 | +$240 |
| $75,000 | $75,360 | +$360 |
| $100,000 | $100,481 | +$481 |
| $150,000 | $150,721 | +$721 |
$ in St. Louis = in Yakima
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (95.1 → 95.5), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Yakima more expensive than St. Louis?
Yakima is 0.5% more expensive than St. Louis. The overall cost index is 95.5 vs 95.1 (national average = 100).
What salary in Yakima equals $100K in St. Louis?
A $100,000 salary in St. Louis has the same purchasing power as $100,481 in Yakima. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between St. Louis and Yakima?
Rents in St. Louis are indexed at 79.0 while Yakima is at 72.6 (national average = 100). St. Louis 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.