Fayetteville vs Lexington
Metro-area medians — Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR Metro Area vs Lexington-Fayette, KY Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Fayetteville comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Fayetteville and Lexington cost about the same to live in, but Fayetteville households earn about 14% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Fayetteville.
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, Fayetteville leaves you about $1,193/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 Fayetteville for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Fayetteville vs Lexington — frequently asked
- Is Fayetteville cheaper than Lexington?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Fayetteville and Lexington metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Fayetteville or Lexington?
- Fayetteville has the higher median household income — $81,208 versus $71,444 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 14% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Fayetteville or Lexington?
- A paycheck stretches further in Fayetteville. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $88,895 there versus $76,913 in Lexington.
- Which has cheaper rent, Fayetteville or Lexington?
- Rents are close — $1,222/mo in the Fayetteville metro versus $1,245/mo in Lexington (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).