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Winston-Salem vs Memphis

Cost of living comparison based on BEA Regional Price Parities. Memphis is 0.1% more expensive than Winston-Salem.

0.1% more expensive

Memphis, TN-MS-AR is 0.1% more expensive than Winston-Salem, NC on BEA Regional Price Parities (overall RPP 92.2 vs 92.0). A $100,000 salary in Winston-Salem buys about the same as $100,148 in Memphis; the largest component gap is services.

  • Overall RPP 92.0 (Winston-Salem) vs 92.2 (Memphis)
  • $100k in Winston-Salem ≈ $100,148 purchasing power in Memphis
  • Services drives the gap (-14.3 RPP points)

RPP parity plate

Pair NC:TN 92.0→92.2

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

  • PHOTO-FINISH Photo finish
  • CROSS-STATE NC × TN
  • 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.

Winston-Salem
92.0
Cost Index
Memphis
92.2
Cost Index

What This Comparison Actually Tells You

Winston-Salem, NC and Memphis, TN-MS-AR 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: Memphis is 14.3 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 Winston-Salem to $100,148 in Memphis, but it is not a personal spending weight.

Category Breakdown

Visual Comparison

Overall
Winston-Salem
92.0
Memphis
92.2
Goods
Winston-Salem
96.6
Memphis
96.2
Services
Winston-Salem
88.4
Memphis
74.1
Rents
Winston-Salem
71.4
Memphis
79.8

Vertical line = national average (100)

Salary Equivalents

What a salary in Winston-Salem would need to be in Memphis for the same purchasing power:

In Winston-Salem In Memphis Difference
$50,000 $50,074 +$74
$75,000 $75,111 +$111
$100,000 $100,148 +$148
$150,000 $150,222 +$222
$ in Winston-Salem = – in Memphis

Same BEA Regional Price Parity ratio as the table above (92.0 → 92.2), computed live from your number, nothing is sent anywhere.

Reverse: Memphis → Winston-Salem Winston-Salem Details Memphis Details

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is Memphis more expensive than Winston-Salem?

Memphis is 0.1% more expensive than Winston-Salem. The overall cost index is 92.2 vs 92.0 (national average = 100).

What salary in Memphis equals $100K in Winston-Salem?

A $100,000 salary in Winston-Salem has the same purchasing power as $100,148 in Memphis. This is based on the BEA Regional Price Parity indexes.

How do rents compare between Winston-Salem and Memphis?

Rents in Winston-Salem are indexed at 71.4 while Memphis is at 79.8 (national average = 100). Memphis 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.