West Virginia and Kansas had the lowest cost of living across all U.S. states, with composite costs being half of those found in Hawaii. This was according to a composite index that compares prices for various goods and services on a state-by-state basis. In West Virginia, the cost of living index amounted to **** — well below the national benchmark of 100. Virginia— which had an index value of ***** — was only slightly above that benchmark. Expensive places to live included Hawaii, Massachusetts, and California. Housing costs in the U.S. Housing is usually the highest expense in a household’s budget. In 2023, the average house sold for approximately ******* U.S. dollars, but house prices in the Northeast and West regions were significantly higher. Conversely, the South had some of the least expensive housing. In West Virginia, Mississippi, and Louisiana, the median price of the typical single-family home was less than ******* U.S. dollars. That makes living expenses in these states significantly lower than in states such as Hawaii and California, where housing is much pricier. What other expenses affect the cost of living? Utility costs such as electricity, natural gas, water, and internet also influence the cost of living. In Alaska, Hawaii, and Connecticut, the average monthly utility cost exceeded *** U.S. dollars. That was because of the significantly higher prices for electricity and natural gas in these states.

Quality of life is a measure of comfort, health, and happiness by a person or a group of people. Quality of life is determined by both material factors, such as income and housing, and broader considerations like health, education, and freedom. Each year, US & World News releases its “Best States to Live in” report, which ranks states on the quality of life each state provides its residents. In order to determine rankings, U.S. News & World Report considers a wide range of factors, including healthcare, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and corrections, and the natural environment. More information on these categories and what is measured in each can be found below:

Healthcare includes access, quality, and affordability of healthcare, as well as health measurements, such as obesity rates and rates of smoking. Education measures how well public schools perform in terms of testing and graduation rates, as well as tuition costs associated with higher education and college debt load. Economy looks at GDP growth, migration to the state, and new business. Infrastructure includes transportation availability, road quality, communications, and internet access. Opportunity includes poverty rates, cost of living, housing costs and gender and racial equality. Fiscal Stability considers the health of the government's finances, including how well the state balances its budget. Crime and Corrections ranks a state’s public safety and measures prison systems and their populations. Natural Environment looks at the quality of air and water and exposure to pollution.

This statistic shows the most affordable metro areas in the Unites States in 2017, by share of income spent on living expenses. In 2017, Omaha was the second most affordable metro area because ***** percent of the median blending annual household income was spent on the average cost of owning or renting a home as well the average cost of utilities and taxes.

This collection contains data obtained from families of wage earners or salaried workers in industrial locales scattered throughout the United States. The purpose of the survey was to estimate the cost of living of a "typical" American family. The completed questionnaires contain information about income sources and family expenditures including specific quantities and costs of food, housing, clothing, fuel, furniture, and miscellaneous household items for the calendar year. Demographic characteristics recorded for each household member include relationship to head, age, sex, occupation, weeks spent in the household and employed, wage rate, and total earnings.

According to a survey done in July 2023, nearly **** in *** Americans with public insurance reported that they had difficulty paying household bills (including electric/heating) due to medical debt. Americans without insurance and those with public health insurance were more likely to have difficulty affording living expenses due to medical debt, compared to those with private health insurance. This statistic depicts the share of Americans who experienced hardships in affording selected living expenses due to medical debt in 2023, by insurance status.

The ACCRA Cost of Living Index (COLI) is a measure of living cost differences among urban areas compiled by the Council for Community and Economic Research. Conducted quarterly, the index compares the price of goods and services among approximately 300 communities in the United States and Canada. This Microsoft Excel file contains the average prices of goods and services published in the ACCRA Cost of Living Index since 1990.

The US Family Budget Dataset provides insights into the cost of living in different US counties based on the Family Budget Calculator by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

This dataset offers community-specific estimates for ten family types, including one or two adults with zero to four children, in all 1877 counties and metro areas across the United States.

Interesting Task Ideas:

1. See how family budgets compare to the federal poverty line and the Supplemental Poverty Measure in different counties.
2. Look into the money challenges faced by different types of families using the budgets provided.
3. Find out which counties have the most affordable places to live, food, transportation, healthcare, childcare, and other things people need.
4. Explore how the average income of families relates to the overall cost of living in different counties.
5. Investigate how family size affects the estimated budget and find counties where bigger families have higher costs.
6. Create visuals showing how the cost of living varies across different states and big cities.
7. Check whether specific counties are affordable for families of different sizes and types.
8. Use the dataset to compare living standards and economic security in different US counties.

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This dataset contains replication files for "The Fading American Dream: Trends in Absolute Income Mobility Since 1940" by Raj Chetty, David Grusky, Maximilian Hell, Nathaniel Hendren, Robert Manduca, and Jimmy Narang. For more information, see https://opportunityinsights.org/paper/the-fading-american-dream/. A summary of the related publication follows. One of the defining features of the “American Dream” is the ideal that children have a higher standard of living than their parents. We assess whether the U.S. is living up to this ideal by estimating rates of “absolute income mobility” – the fraction of children who earn more than their parents – since 1940. We measure absolute mobility by comparing children’s household incomes at age 30 (adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index) with their parents’ household incomes at age 30. We find that rates of absolute mobility have fallen from approximately 90% for children born in 1940 to 50% for children born in the 1980s. Absolute income mobility has fallen across the entire income distribution, with the largest declines for families in the middle class. These findings are unaffected by using alternative price indices to adjust for inflation, accounting for taxes and transfers, measuring income at later ages, and adjusting for changes in household size. Absolute mobility fell in all 50 states, although the rate of decline varied, with the largest declines concentrated in states in the industrial Midwest, such as Michigan and Illinois. The decline in absolute mobility is especially steep – from 95% for children born in 1940 to 41% for children born in 1984 – when we compare the sons’ earnings to their fathers’ earnings. Why have rates of upward income mobility fallen so sharply over the past half-century? There have been two important trends that have affected the incomes of children born in the 1980s relative to those born in the 1940s and 1950s: lower Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates and greater inequality in the distribution of growth. We find that most of the decline in absolute mobility is driven by the more unequal distribution of economic growth rather than the slowdown in aggregate growth rates. When we simulate an economy that restores GDP growth to the levels experienced in the 1940s and 1950s but distributes that growth across income groups as it is distributed today, absolute mobility only increases to 62%. In contrast, maintaining GDP at its current level but distributing it more broadly across income groups – at it was distributed for children born in the 1940s – would increase absolute mobility to 80%, thereby reversing more than two-thirds of the decline in absolute mobility. These findings show that higher growth rates alone are insufficient to restore absolute mobility to the levels experienced in mid-century America. Under the current distribution of GDP, we would need real GDP growth rates above 6% per year to return to rates of absolute mobility in the 1940s. Intuitively, because a large fraction of GDP goes to a small fraction of high-income households today, higher GDP growth does not substantially increase the number of children who earn more than their parents. Of course, this does not mean that GDP growth does not matter: changing the distribution of growth naturally has smaller effects on absolute mobility when there is very little growth to be distributed. The key point is that increasing absolute mobility substantially would require more broad-based economic growth. We conclude that absolute mobility has declined sharply in America over the past half-century primarily because of the growth in inequality. If one wants to revive the “American Dream” of high rates of absolute mobility, one must have an interest in growth that is shared more broadly across the income distribution.

This statistic shows the results of a survey among young adults in the United States on how they rank their own living standards compared to those of their parents at the same age. ** percent think their own living standards nowadays are better than those of their parents when they were the same age.

Graph and download economic data for Expenses for Assisted Living Facilities for The Elderly, Establishments Subject To Federal Income Tax, Employer Firms (ALFFTEEESTF3623312) from 2013 to 2022 about elderly, assistance, employer firms, establishments, tax, expenditures, federal, income, and USA.

Judgement on economic and social conditions in the USA in comparison to the FRG.

Topics: Development of personal economic conditions and the standard of living in the FRG; reasons for the so-called economic miracle and share of the USA in the economic recovery; perceived linking of German economic development with other countries; attitude to a European Common Market; reasons for the high American standard of living; comparison between the USA and the FRG regarding working conditions, productivity, social security and job security of workers; image of Americans; knowledge of economic data of the USA; investment inclination; attitude to the competitive economy; assumed ownership of various branches of the economy in the FRG and in the USA, differences according to government and private; expected influence of the American government on the economy and vice versa; estimated proportion of members of the middle classes; image of American agriculture; judgement on the ideological influence of the USA on the FRG; sources of information about America; membership in clubs and organizations and offices taken on; party preference; self-assessment of social class; local residency.

Demography: age (classified); marital status; religious denomination; school education; occupation; employment; household income; state; refugee status.

Interviewer rating: social class and willingness of respondent to cooperate; number of contact attempts.

Also encoded were: age of interviewer and sex of interviewer; city size.

This table contains data on the living wage and the percent of families with incomes below the living wage for California, its counties, regions and cities/towns. Living wage is the wage needed to cover basic family expenses (basic needs budget) plus all relevant taxes; it does not include publicly provided income or housing assistance. The percent of families below the living wage was calculated using data from the Living Wage Calculator and the U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. The table is part of a series of indicators in the Healthy Communities Data and Indicators Project of the Office of Health Equity. The living wage is the wage or annual income that covers the cost of the bare necessities of life for a worker and his/her family. These necessities include housing, transportation, food, childcare, health care, and payment of taxes. Low income populations and non-white race/ethnic have disproportionately lower wages, poorer housing, and higher levels of food insecurity. More information about the data table and a data dictionary can be found in the About/Attachments section.

Assessment of economic and social conditions in the USA in comparison to the FRG.

Topics: Judgement on development of personal economic situation; evaluation of cooperation between the German and the American economy; evaluation of German and American commercial life, the economic strength of America, the German and American standard of living as well as the influence of American ideas on the FRG; reasons for the economic strength of America and the high standard of living as well as for American aid for European countries; differences between German and American trade unions and assumed political influence of American trade unions; economic strength of European countries; comparison of shopping habits of Germans and Americans; attitude to America and the Americans; use of sources of information about America; assessment of the best form of provision for one´s old age; naming the American film city and automobile city; estimate of quota of vehicle possession in the FRG and the USA.

Demography: age (classified); marital status; religious denomination; school education; occupation; employment; household income; party preference; self-assessment of social class; state; refugee status; present and past offices held; membership.

Interviewer rating: social class and willingness of respondent to cooperate; number of contact attempts.

Also encoded were: age of interviewer and sex of interviewer; city size.

This paper revisits the assessment of living standards in the United States from its founding to the present, challenging the conventional portrayal of economic well-being during wartime periods. Reflecting multiple criticisms made of the quality of national accounts which include defense spending during times of both peace and war, we employ the methodological framework established by Higgs (1992) and extended by Geloso and Pender (2023) to correct national accounts by subtracting military expenditures from GDP and GNP data. This rectifies the overstatement of living standards attributed to defense spending. Our analysis uses comprehensive data from the Historical Statistics of the United States and the Measuring Worth database, adjusting for price controls during World Wars I and II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War using a corrected price deflator based on a regression model of economic indicators. The study finds that traditional measures significantly overstate living standards during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Post-World War II analysis reveals a persistent overestimation of living standards, particularly pronounced during the Vietnam War years. More importantly, our results provide nuanced insights into certain stylized facts of trends in American improvements of living standards (notably inequality and the Great Depression).

Among the service sector in the United States, the real estate, rental and leasing industry added the most value to the GDP in 2023. In that year, this industry added 3.67 trillion U.S. dollars to the national GDP. Gross domestic product is a measure of how much a country produces in a certain amount of time. Countries with a high GDP tend to have large economies, for example, the United States. However, GDP does not take into consideration the cost of living and inflation rates, so it cannot be used to calculate the standard of living. The annual GDP of the United States since 1990 can be accessed here.

In 2024, the annual median cost for long-term care in the United States ranged from ****** to ******* U.S. dollars, depending on the type of service. This significant financial burden highlights the importance of planning for future healthcare needs, as many older adults may face substantial out-of-pocket costs for extended care services. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities Nursing homes represent the most expensive long-term care option, with private rooms costing an estimated ****** U.S. dollars per month in 2024. Semi-private rooms are slightly more affordable at ***** U.S. dollars monthly. Assisted living facilities offer a less costly alternative, with annual expenses for a private room averaging ****** U.S. dollars. However, these costs can vary dramatically by location, with states like Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington D.C. commanding the highest prices for assisted living accommodations. Home care services and future projections For those preferring to receive care at home, the hourly rates for long-term home care services in 2024 were ** U.S. dollars for homemaker services and ** U.S. dollars for home health aide services. These costs are expected to rise significantly in the coming decades, with projections suggesting home health aide services could approach *** U.S. dollars per hour by 2060. The increasing expense of long-term care is evident across all service types, with assisted living facilities experiencing a ** percent cost increase from 2023 to 2024, while nursing home rates for semi-private and private rooms rose by * and * percent, respectively.

Graph and download economic data for Expenses for Research and Development In The Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences, Establishments Subject To Federal Income Tax, Employer Firms (RADITPEALSE3254171) from 2003 to 2022 about R&D, engineering, science, life, employer firms, establishments, tax, expenditures, federal, income, and USA.

This dataset presents statistics for Finance and Insurance: Administrative Expenses and Benefits Paid for Life, Health, and Medical Insurance Carriers for the U.S.

The statistic shows the gross domestic product (GDP) of the United States from 1987 to 2024, with projections up until 2030. The gross domestic product of the United States in 2024 amounted to around 29.18 trillion U.S. dollars. The United States and the economy The United States’ economy is by far the largest in the world; a status which can be determined by several key factors, one being gross domestic product: A look at the GDP of the main industrialized and emerging countries shows a significant difference between US GDP and the GDP of China, the runner-up in the ranking, as well as the followers Japan, Germany and France. Interestingly, it is assumed that China will have surpassed the States in terms of GDP by 2030, but for now, the United States is among the leading countries in almost all other relevant rankings and statistics, trade and employment for example. See the U.S. GDP growth rate here. Just like in other countries, the American economy suffered a severe setback when the economic crisis occurred in 2008. The American economy entered a recession caused by the collapsing real estate market and increasing unemployment. Despite this, the standard of living is considered quite high; life expectancy in the United States has been continually increasing slightly over the past decade, the unemployment rate in the United States has been steadily recovering and decreasing since the crisis, and the Big Mac Index, which represents the global prices for a Big Mac, a popular indicator for the purchasing power of an economy, shows that the United States’ purchasing power in particular is only slightly lower than that of the euro area.

Forecast: Expenses of Life and Health Insurance in the US 2024 - 2028 Discover more data with ReportLinker!