Champaign vs Fargo
Metro-area medians — Champaign-Urbana, IL Metro Area vs Fargo, ND-MN Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Fargo comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Champaign and Fargo cost about the same to live in, but Fargo households earn about 18% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Fargo.
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, Fargo leaves you about $5,108/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 Fargo for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Champaign vs Fargo — frequently asked
- Is Champaign cheaper than Fargo?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Champaign and Fargo metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Champaign or Fargo?
- Fargo has the higher median household income — $76,945 versus $64,980 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 18% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Champaign or Fargo?
- A paycheck stretches further in Fargo. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $84,675 there versus $70,094 in Champaign.
- Which has cheaper rent, Champaign or Fargo?
- Fargo has cheaper rent — a median of $997/mo versus $1,103/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).