Overall
- Wilmington
- 96.4
- Fairbanks-College
- 103.2
Diff +6.8 RPP
Wilmington vs Fairbanks-College
Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Fairbanks-College is 7% more expensive than Wilmington.
7% more expensive
Fairbanks-College, AK is 7% more expensive than Wilmington, NC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 103.2 vs 96.4). A $100,000 salary in Wilmington buys about the same as $107,038 in Fairbanks-College; the largest component gap is services.
- Overall RPP 96.4 (Wilmington) vs 103.2 (Fairbanks-College)
- $100k in Wilmington ≈ $107,038 purchasing power in Fairbanks-College
- Services drives the gap (+31.9 RPP points)
RPP parity plate
Pair NC:AK 96.4→103.2
TIER-NEAR · CROSS-STATE · SPLIT-BUDGET · BENCH-CROSS · PP-SHIFT
- TIER-NEAR Near tier
- CROSS-STATE NC × AK
- 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
- Wilmington
- 96.6
- Fairbanks-College
- 107.3
Diff +10.7 RPP
Services
- Wilmington
- 87.9
- Fairbanks-College
- 119.8
Diff +31.9 RPP
Rents
- Wilmington
- 93.2
- Fairbanks-College
- 92.6
Diff -0.7 RPP
| Category | Wilmington | Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall | 96.4 | 103.2 | +6.8 |
| Goods | 96.6 | 107.3 | +10.7 |
| Services | 87.9 | 119.8 | +31.9 |
| Rents | 93.2 | 92.6 | -0.7 |
Visual Comparison
Overall
Wilmington 96.4
Fairbanks-College 103.2
Goods
Wilmington 96.6
Fairbanks-College 107.3
Services
Wilmington 87.9
Fairbanks-College 119.8
Rents
Wilmington 93.2
Fairbanks-College 92.6
Vertical line = national average (100)
What This Comparison Actually Tells You
Services creates the largest separation: Fairbanks-College is 31.9 points higher. But rents move against the overall direction, so this is a split budget rather than a clean across-the-board winner.
Fairbanks-College, AK is 7% more expensive than Wilmington, NC, a meaningful but not extreme shift. The move decision turns on which budget category creates the 6.8-point overall gap.
This route crosses the national benchmark: Fairbanks-College is above 100 while Wilmington 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 Wilmington to $107,038 in Fairbanks-College, but it is not a personal spending weight.
Wilmington
96.4
Cost Index
Fairbanks-College
103.2
Cost Index
Salary Equivalents
What a salary in Wilmington would need to be in Fairbanks-College for the same purchasing power:
| In Wilmington | In Fairbanks-College | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| $50,000 | $53,519 | +$3,519 |
| $75,000 | $80,278 | +$5,278 |
| $100,000 | $107,038 | +$7,038 |
| $150,000 | $160,557 | +$10,557 |
$ in Wilmington = in Fairbanks-College
Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (96.4 → 103.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.
How the Price Gap Changed
Wilmington and Fairbanks-College share 17 published annual releases from 2008 through 2024. Their overall gap narrowed, moving from 11.5 to 6.8 RPP points. Fairbanks-College remained the higher-index metro in the latest release.
Rents changed the most within this pair: its gap moved 37.8 points between the first and latest shared releases (37.2 to 0.7 points). This describes a relative price-index history, not a forecast or a household budget.
| Release Year | Wilmington RPP | Fairbanks-College RPP | Relative Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | 93.2 | 104.7 | 11.5 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2012 | 95.2 | 97.9 | 2.8 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2016 | 95.1 | 100.4 | 5.3 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2020 | 94.0 | 99.4 | 5.3 points Fairbanks-College higher |
| 2024 | 96.4 | 103.2 | 6.8 points Fairbanks-College 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 Fairbanks-College more expensive than Wilmington?
Fairbanks-College is 7% more expensive than Wilmington. The overall cost index is 103.2 vs 96.4 (national average = 100).
What salary in Fairbanks-College equals $100K in Wilmington?
A $100,000 salary in Wilmington has the same purchasing power as $107,038 in Fairbanks-College. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.
How do rents compare between Wilmington and Fairbanks-College?
Rents in Wilmington are indexed at 93.2 while Fairbanks-College is at 92.6 (national average = 100). Wilmington 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.