What it costs to live in Mississippi
Price levels against the national average
Prices overall
-12.71%
below average
Housing
-45.1%
ranks 51 for shelter
A hundred dollars of shopping
$87
costs this here
Price rank
50
1 is the most expensive
What that actually means in Mississippi
- Buying things in Mississippi costs less than it does in most of the country, ranking 50 nationally. The gap is about 12.71%, which turns a hundred dollars of national-average shopping into $87. It is the quiet half of any decision about where to live.
- Mississippi is cheap where it counts most. Overall prices are about 12.71% from average. Housing is about 45.1% from it, which is a far bigger gap. Groceries and gas cost roughly what they cost elsewhere. Rent does not, and rent is the bill that repeats every month without fail.
- What does that do to a salary? Seventy-five thousand dollars, earned and spent in Mississippi, goes as far as $85,919 would at average American prices. Tax is a separate subject and comes out on top of this.
- Mississippi's overall price level sits about 12.71% beneath the national average, ranking 50 across all jurisdictions, and the national one-hundred-dollar basket costs $87. Since BEA weights the basket to national consumption patterns, this figure is comparable across states in a way that surveys of household spending are not.
- Shelter in Mississippi carries a parity about 45.1% beneath the national level while the all-items index sits about 12.71% from it — a spread of about 32.39%, ranking 51 for housing costs. Since housing typically represents the largest single line in a household budget, a state whose cheapness is concentrated there delivers more real income than its all-items parity implies, particularly for households early in their tenure.
- Adjusting seventy-five thousand dollars for Mississippi's all-items parity yields $85,919 in constant national purchasing power. ⚠️ The figure is pre-tax and price-only; income, sales and local taxes are additional and independent of the parity. Nominal wage levels also correlate with parities in practice, so a full comparison of two states requires the local salary for the same role alongside this adjustment.
What the money buys here
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home, actual dollars | $58,685 |
|---|---|
| Price level, all itemsUS average = 100 | 87.292 |
| HousingUS average = 100 | 54.899 |
| Cheapest place to live | 2nd of 51 |
Housing is where places differ most. Everything else moves far less than people expect.
Price parities are an index where the US average is 100 — a comparison between places, not a price.
The same pay, somewhere else
A $75,000 salary
| Take-home in Mississippi | $58,685 |
|---|---|
| Take-home in Texas | $61,593 |
| Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity | −$3,845 |
The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.
State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.
What is expensive here
A $75,000 salary
- Housing54.899
- Goods94.873
- Services98.201
| Housing | 54.899 |
|---|---|
| Goods | 94.873 |
| Services | 98.201 |
| All items | 87.292 |
An index where 100 is the national average. Housing moves far more than anything else.
Housing, against the country
A $75,000 salary
| Cheapest housing | MS · 55 |
|---|---|
| Dearest housing | DC · 169 |
| This state, cheapest first | 1st of 51 |
A BEA index where 100 is the national average, not a house price.
Where the ranking flips
A $75,000 salary
| Mississippi on take-home | 31st |
|---|---|
| Once prices are leveled | 6th |
| Places moved | 25 |
Left is rank on take-home. Right is rank once local prices are leveled by BEA parities.
Mississippi against Texas
A $75,000 salary
| Measure | Mississippi | Texas |
|---|---|---|
| Take-home pay | $58,685 | $61,593 |
| Worth after local prices | $67,228 | $63,383 |
| Share of pay taxed | 21.75% | 17.88% |
| State sales tax | 7% | 6.25% |
| Groceries exempt here | No | Yes |
| Clothing exempt at $100 | No | No |
| Property tax rate | 0.72% | 1.49% |
| Price level | 87.3 | 97.2 |
| Housing prices | 54.9 | 97.4 |
| Fuel tax | 24¢ | 20¢ |
| Tobacco tax | $0.68 | $1.41 |
City income tax excluded. Sales-tax row: state-only. Exemptions: Mississippi, Statewide average; Texas, Harris County (Houston). Clothing: one $100 item; higher prices can change tax.
What you would need there
A $75,000 salary
| To match take-home only | $70,866 |
|---|---|
| Raise you would need | +$5,311 |
| Prices in Texas | 97 vs 87 |
State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.
Where the difference actually sits
Each line compares Mississippi with the national average for that kind of spending. The overall figure is the three above it, weighted the way a typical household spends — which is why housing can pull it a long way on its own.
| What you spend on | Against national average | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | -45.1% | Rent and owners’ equivalent rent |
| Goods | -5.13% | Groceries, fuel, clothing |
| Other services | -1.8% | Haircuts, repairs, childcare |
| All items | -12.71% | The three above, weighted |
What a salary is worth here
A salary of seventy-five thousand dollars, spent at Mississippi prices, buys what $85,919 would buy at national average prices. That is a price adjustment only. No tax of any kind has been taken off it, and tax is a separate bill on the same money.
What this page cannot tell you
- This is one number for the whole of Mississippi, and no state is one place. A big city and a rural county can sit far apart on every figure here.
- These prices were measured in 2023. Rents in particular can move a long way in a couple of years.
- And this is prices only. It says nothing about what Mississippi charges you in tax, which is a separate bill and is covered elsewhere on this site.
- These parities are state-level aggregates. BEA also publishes metropolitan-area parities, and within-state dispersion between a large metro and a rural area routinely exceeds the difference between two states — so a state figure should not be read as descriptive of any particular address in Mississippi.
- The underlying survey vintage is 2023, which is the most recent BEA publication rather than a current reading. Shelter parities are the component most exposed to drift between vintages, so recent local rent movements in Mississippi will not be reflected here.
- Price parity and tax burden are independent quantities and this page models only the first. A low-parity state with high income tax and a high-parity state with none can leave a household in the same real position; comparing Mississippi to another jurisdiction requires both figures, not either alone.
Questions people ask
What does a lower cost of living actually get me?
Room that a bigger salary elsewhere might not buy. A hundred dollars here does the work of $87 at national prices.
Is this number a percentage?
Not a percentage — an index against a national average pinned at one hundred. The gap is in index points, which is a comparison rather than a rate on anything.
Which part of living here is actually different?
Housing, and by a long way. Goods cost broadly the same everywhere — a television is a television — but rent and house prices swing far wider than anything else, so the housing component is what pushes Mississippi away from the national average rather than the shopping.
Is this one of the extremes?
It sits at 50 of 51, close to an extreme. The tails of this distribution are stretched, so differences involving them overstate what an ordinary relocation looks like.
How should I compare a job offer here with one somewhere else?
Two adjustments, not one. Prices bring a reference salary to $85,919 here, and state income tax changes the figure separately.
How does a below-average price level translate into real income?
Mississippi's all-items parity is at or below the national average, so nominal income understates purchasing power: one hundred dollars purchases $87 of national-average consumption. ⚠️ Parity measures prices, not availability or quality, and does not capture differences in the composition of what is bought.
How should a regional price parity be interpreted?
Regional price parities are index numbers with the national average normalized to one hundred. Differences are expressed in index points and are comparative rather than proportional to any specific price. They are estimated from a fixed national consumption basket, so they do not reflect state-specific spending patterns.
Which component drives this state's parity?
The housing parity dominates Mississippi's all-items figure, diverging from the national average by more than twice the goods component. Tradeable goods arbitrage across state lines and therefore cluster near parity; housing is non-tradeable, so its parity spans a far wider range and drives most interstate variation in the headline index.
Where does this state sit in the national ordering?
This state ranks 50 of 51, within the tails of the distribution. Parity dispersion is greater at the extremes than around the median, so comparisons anchored on a tail state overstate typical interstate differences.
How should nominal offers be adjusted across states?
Nominal offers should be deflated by the destination parity before comparison; the reference salary is equivalent to $85,919 in national-average terms here. ⚠️ Price adjustment and tax adjustment are independent and must both be applied — a state may be simultaneously cheap and heavily taxed, or the reverse.