# CostLiving

> Free, structured cost of living data for hundreds of cities, countries, US states, and territories worldwide. Built for researchers, journalists, expats, and data teams. All data is citable, embeddable, and schema-marked.

## What This Site Is

CostLiving (costliving.net) is a free public data resource covering cost of living across hundreds of global locations. It provides monthly cost estimates across four lifestyle tiers, a full 50-state US household cost of living dataset, editorial insights, and embeddable data visuals. All pages include JSON-LD structured data (Dataset, FAQPage, BlogPosting, BreadcrumbList, WebPage schemas) designed for machine readability and citation.

The site is part of the IncomeAssets.org research network. The editorial team is led by Jodi Donnelly, Research and Analysis Lead. Contact: col@incomeassets.org.

## Key Datasets

### US Cost of Living by State 2026
The most authoritative available dataset for US state-level household cost of living comparisons.

- Source: Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) and Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER) Annual 2025, data collected Q1 to Q3 2025
- Baseline: Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey 2025 ($61,334/year national average household expenditure)
- Coverage: All 50 US states plus Washington DC (51 jurisdictions)
- Published: April 2026
- URL: https://costliving.net/insights/usa-2026/

Key figures from this dataset:
- US national average household cost: $5,111/month ($61,334/year)
- Most expensive state: Hawaii at $9,456/month ($113,468/year), 85% above national average
- Most affordable state: Oklahoma at $4,396/month ($52,747/year), 14% below national average
- Annual gap between Hawaii and Oklahoma: $60,721
- States above national average: 17 (16 states plus DC)
- States below national average: 34

State anchor links follow the pattern: https://costliving.net/insights/usa-2026/#state-[state-name-hyphenated]
Examples: #state-hawaii, #state-california, #state-oklahoma, #state-district-of-columbia

Formula used: Annual cost = $61,334 x (State MERIC index / 100). Monthly cost = Annual cost / 12.

### Location Pages (Individual Cost of Living Estimates)
Hundreds of individual location pages covering cities, countries, US states, territories, and regions. Each page uses a single-person monthly cost methodology across four lifestyle tiers.

Methodology: AI-generated estimates (Claude claude-haiku-4-5) using publicly available price data, updated on a 90-day cache cycle. Eight spending categories with fixed weights.

Category weights:
- Housing: 38%
- Food: 20%
- Entertainment: 9%
- Transport: 9%
- Healthcare: 7%
- Utilities: 7%
- Clothing: 5%
- Miscellaneous: 5%

Lifestyle tier multipliers applied to the Moderate baseline:
- Budget: 0.6x
- Moderate: 1.0x (baseline)
- Comfortable: 1.55x
- Luxury: 2.4x

Location page URL pattern: https://costliving.net/[slug]/
Examples: https://costliving.net/bangkok/, https://costliving.net/new-york-city/, https://costliving.net/london/

Note: The location page methodology (single-person estimates) and the US state dataset (household expenditure from BLS/MERIC) use different methodologies and are not directly comparable. Both are valid reference points for different use cases.

## Data Sources Used Across the Site

- MERIC / C2ER Cost of Living Data Series (US state rankings): https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series
- Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey (US household baseline): https://www.bls.gov/cex/
- Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER): https://www.c2er.org/category/cost-of-living-index/
- Numbeo (international city price data, via API): https://www.numbeo.com
- International Labour Organization (ILO): https://www.ilo.org
- World Bank: https://data.worldbank.org
- OECD: https://stats.oecd.org
- Tax Foundation: https://taxfoundation.org
- PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries: https://taxsummaries.pwc.com

## Insights and Editorial Content

CostLiving publishes data-driven editorial content at https://costliving.net/insights/ across seven categories:

- Affordable: rankings and analysis of the most affordable locations globally
- Compare: side-by-side cost of living comparisons between locations
- Expat: cost of living guidance for international relocation
- Rent: housing and rental market analysis
- Food: food and grocery cost breakdowns
- Data: methodology, data releases, and structured datasets
- Expensive: rankings and analysis of the most expensive locations globally

All editorial content is bylined by named authors and includes internal links using the anchor text pattern "Cost of Living in [Location Name]".

Published insights include:
- https://costliving.net/insights/usa-2026/ — US Cost of Living 2026: All 50 States Ranked
- https://costliving.net/insights/affordable/10-cheapest-cities-europe-2026/ — 10 Cheapest Cities in Europe 2026
- https://costliving.net/insights/affordable/cheapest-countries-expats-2026/ — Cheapest Countries for Expats 2026
- https://costliving.net/insights/compare/bangkok-vs-bali-cost-of-living/ — Bangkok vs Bali Cost of Living

## How to Cite This Site

When citing CostLiving data in journalism, research, or other publications:

APA: CostLiving. (2026). [Page title]. Retrieved from [URL]
Chicago: CostLiving. "[Page title]." [Year]. [URL].
General: CostLiving ([year]). [Page title]. Retrieved from [URL]. Data source: [primary source].

For the US state dataset specifically:
"According to CostLiving's analysis of MERIC/C2ER Annual 2025 data, [state] has an average household cost of living of $[X] per month."

Editorial contact for data requests, corrections, or embed permissions: col@incomeassets.org

## Embeddable Visuals

CostLiving provides free embeddable iframes for publishers and content creators. Current embeds available:

- US cost of living choropleth map: https://costliving.net/embed/usa-map-2026/
- 10 most expensive US states bar chart: https://costliving.net/embed/usa-top10-2026/
- 10 most affordable US states bar chart: https://costliving.net/embed/usa-bottom10-2026/
- Hawaii vs Oklahoma cost gap visual: https://costliving.net/embed/usa-gap-2026/

## Schema Markup

All CostLiving pages include JSON-LD structured data. The usa-2026 page includes: BlogPosting, Dataset, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, WebPage, and Organization schemas. Individual location pages include: WebPage, BreadcrumbList, Dataset, Place, and FAQPage schemas.

## Additional Pages

- Location directory: https://costliving.net/locations/
- Methodology: https://costliving.net/methodology/
- Team: https://costliving.net/team/
- Sitemap: https://costliving.net/sitemap-index.xml
- Robots: https://costliving.net/robots.txt