We created BLISS — the Best Life Index, State Specific — to compare the cost of living across America in a single, honest number. Most cost-of-living tools either oversimplify or hide their math. BLISS does the opposite: it is built entirely on public data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census, the Tax Foundation, and other government and research sources, and the full method is laid out below for anyone to check or cite.
What the BLISS Score is
BLISS quantifies the relative cost of living an equivalent lifestyle in each U.S. state. The output is a single number per state, the BLISS Score.
How to read a BLISS Score
A score of 1.000 is the baseline. Above 1.000 means a state costs more than baseline to live the same way. Below 1.000 means it costs less. California's 1.528 means it takes about 53% more income than baseline to live equivalently; Missouri's 0.78 means about 22% less.
The baseline is set at the 30th-cheapest of the 50 states, so 30 states land at or below 1.000 and 20 land above. We chose that anchor deliberately: most of the country really is more affordable than the high-cost coastal states, and anchoring there keeps the majority of states in the "your dollar goes further" zone rather than against an abstract statistical midpoint. The state at that position currently is Virginia.
The reference lifestyle
You cannot compare cost of living without first fixing what you are pricing. BLISS prices one defined household in every state, so the comparison is apples to apples:
- A married couple with two children
- Homeowners with a mortgage on a median-priced home in their state
- A reference gross income of $75,000, a recognizable middle-class figure
We use a family of four because it captures childcare, a major state-to-state cost difference most calculators miss entirely. The absolute dollars change with household size, but the ratios between states stay stable, which is what the Score is really measuring.
The data behind it
The reference household's spending is allocated across categories using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey 2024 shares. Each category is then adjusted by real state-level data from the source best suited to it:
| Spending category | Share | Adjusted by |
|---|---|---|
| Housing — shelter | 21% | Zillow home values |
| Transportation | 17.0% | Gas prices + cost index |
| Food | 12.9% | MERIC food index |
| Insurance & pensions | 12.5% | Flat (little state variance) |
| Healthcare | 7.9% | KFF benchmark |
| Housing — utilities | 7% | EIA electricity rates |
| Housing — other | 5.4% | Cost index |
| Entertainment | 4.6% | Cost index |
| Cash contributions | 2.9% | Flat |
| Apparel | 2.5% | Cost index |
| Education | 2.0% | Cost index |
| Other (personal care, etc.) | 4.2% | Cost index |
Because the household has two children, we add a state-level childcare cost on top, drawn from Economic Policy Institute data, and we disclose it openly as an adjustment rather than burying it.
The math, step by step
Every BLISS Score is built the same way. Nothing here is hidden:
- Start with the reference household's take-home pay and allocate it across the spending categories above, using the BLS shares.
- Apply each state's real cost data to the relevant categories to get per-state adjustment multipliers.
- Add the required take-home pay across all categories to get what the lifestyle costs in that state.
- Gross that figure back up by the state's actual tax structure, since income tax is part of what a state costs.
- Compute a raw cost value for all 50 states.
- Normalize: divide every state's raw value by the 30th-cheapest state's value, which becomes the 1.000 baseline.
- The result is each state's BLISS Score.
The formula for your own income
To translate any income from one state to another, the baseline cancels out and the math is simple:
That is exactly what the Best Life State Salary Calculator does. Because Virginia is the baseline state (1.000), the math is simply 75,000 × 1.528 ≈ 114,600: a $75,000 lifestyle there takes about $115,000 in California. For any other pair of states, you divide by the starting state's score instead of 1.000.
What BLISS does not measure
An honest index states its limits plainly, so no critic can ambush it and no reader is misled:
- What employers pay. BLISS tells you what you would need, not what local salaries actually are.
- Sub-state variation. California averaged is not San Francisco. State averages hide big differences between cities.
- Climate-driven costs. Heating in Minnesota, cooling in Arizona, are only partly captured through electricity rates.
- Household differences. Singles, retirees, and larger families see different absolute dollars, though the relative comparison still holds.
- Quality of life. Schools, safety, climate, and culture are not cost. Those live in our separate Best Life Rank.
Try it on your own income
See what you would need to earn to live the same way in any state.
Open the salary calculator ›