Philadelphia vs Tampa
Metro-area medians — Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD Metro Area vs Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Philadelphia comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Philadelphia and Tampa cost about the same to live in, but Philadelphia households earn about 16% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Philadelphia.
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, Tampa leaves you about $3,231/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 Philadelphia for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
Philadelphia vs Tampa — frequently asked
- Is Philadelphia cheaper than Tampa?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Philadelphia and Tampa metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Philadelphia or Tampa?
- Philadelphia has the higher median household income — $90,850 versus $78,275 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 16% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Philadelphia or Tampa?
- A paycheck stretches further in Philadelphia. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $88,587 there versus $77,584 in Tampa.
- Which has cheaper rent, Philadelphia or Tampa?
- Philadelphia has cheaper rent — a median of $1,567/mo versus $1,776/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).