Chico vs Eugene
Metro-area medians — Chico, CA Metro Area vs Eugene-Springfield, OR Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Eugene comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Chico and Eugene cost about the same to live in, but Eugene households earn about 13% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Eugene.
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, Chico leaves you about $3,156/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 Eugene for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Chico vs Eugene — frequently asked
- Is Chico cheaper than Eugene?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Chico and Eugene metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Chico or Eugene?
- Eugene has the higher median household income — $73,476 versus $65,221 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 13% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Chico or Eugene?
- A paycheck stretches further in Eugene. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $72,342 there versus $64,450 in Chico.
- Which has cheaper rent, Chico or Eugene?
- Rents are close — $1,446/mo in the Chico metro versus $1,470/mo in Eugene (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).