Chicago-Naperville-Elgin → St. Louis

Moving from Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to St. Louis shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 103.6 to 95.1 (100 = US average), so a Chicago-Naperville-Elgin salary needs to be multiplied by 0.92 to hold the same purchasing power in St. Louis. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $1,781/month in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin to $916/month in St. Louis - a lower monthly bill of $865, or $10,380/year. That rent delta alone is often the single biggest line item when relocating.

Wages tell the other half. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a median salary of $77,100 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin versus $68,074 in St. Louis - a raw gap of $9,026 lower. The St. Louis labor market has 1,311,920 tracked jobs against 4,480,500 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, shaping how easy it is to find a comparable role. Combine that with the cost-of-living shift above and you get the real purchasing-power delta, sometimes a "higher salary" is actually a pay cut once rent and RPP are applied.

Safety, schools, and childcare round out the move. FBI UCR violent crime rates near Chicago-Naperville-Elgin and St. Louis are 277 and 463 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 14:1 at origin versus 12.8:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Neutral — Depends on Priorities - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.