Press Release
☷Estimating County Level Regional Price Parities from Public Data
U.S. Department of Commerce ( By Press Release office)
Mar 29,2024
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The concept that prices vary depending on the location is pretty well - known in economics . Most people would easily understand that a day in New York City would be more expensive than a day in rural Texas . To measure these price differences , the Bureau of Economic Analysis ( BEA ) publishes regional price parities ( RPPs ) . RPPs use a weighted average of goods and services across different places in a given year , allowing for price comparisons between locations . They are available for all 50 states , the District of Columbia , and 384 metropolitan areas . For example , RPPs reveal that goods and services in the most expensive state , California , cost almost 30% more than in the least expensive state in 2022 . Being able to see these price differences at a more detailed level can be helpful for people making decisions about policies , planning , and growth . In order to support these objectives , a new working paper from OUSEA explains how experimental county - level RPPs were created using publicly available data . Additionally , a new experimental data set containing these county - level estimates is now accessible . It ' s important to note that this unique data set is not an official government statistical product and should not be interpreted as such . Instead , it aims to utilize existing public data to explore how economic experiences related to prices may vary at the county level . The working paper provides a thorough explanation of the methodology , while this blog highlights the main findings from the experimental data set . Expensive counties tend to be located in metropolitan areas , similar to the official RPP data from the BEA . These experimental RPPs are also designed to average out to 100 , with values above or below indicating higher or lower costs compared to the national average .
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