Duluth vs Erie
Metro-area medians — Duluth, MN-WI Metro Area vs Erie, PA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Duluth and Erie are evenly matched, each taking 3 of the clearly-decided measures.
Duluth and Erie cost about the same to live in, but Duluth households earn about 9% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Duluth.
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, Duluth leaves you about $121/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 Duluth for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
Duluth vs Erie — frequently asked
- Is Duluth cheaper than Erie?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Duluth and Erie metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Duluth or Erie?
- Duluth has the higher median household income — $69,309 versus $63,322 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 9% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Duluth or Erie?
- A paycheck stretches further in Duluth. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $78,079 there versus $69,623 in Erie.
- Which has cheaper rent, Duluth or Erie?
- Erie has cheaper rent — a median of $888/mo versus $993/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).