Atlanta vs St. Louis
Metro-area medians — Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA Metro Area vs St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area — not the cities proper.
St. Louis comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
St. Louis is about 5% cheaper to live in, while Atlanta households earn about 13% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Atlanta.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, St. Louis leaves you about $3,727/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Atlanta for
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
Choose St. Louis for
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Average commute
Atlanta vs St. Louis — frequently asked
- Is Atlanta cheaper than St. Louis?
- St. Louis is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 5% below Atlanta's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Atlanta or St. Louis?
- Atlanta has the higher median household income — $92,344 versus $81,679 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 13% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Atlanta or St. Louis?
- A paycheck stretches further in Atlanta. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $92,290 there versus $85,898 in St. Louis.
- Which has cheaper rent, Atlanta or St. Louis?
- St. Louis has cheaper rent — a median of $1,154/mo versus $1,770/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).