St. Cloud → Sioux City

Moving from St. Cloud to Sioux City shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 87.6 to 86.5 (100 = US average), so a St. Cloud salary needs to be multiplied by 0.99 to hold the same purchasing power in Sioux City. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $1,206/month in St. Cloud to $1,154/month in Sioux City - a lower monthly bill of $52, or $624/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 $72,671 in St. Cloud versus $61,732 in Sioux City - a raw gap of $10,939 lower. The Sioux City labor market has 69,160 tracked jobs against 96,960 in St. Cloud, 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 St. Cloud and Sioux City are 259 and 238 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 15.8:1 at origin versus 14.8:1 at destination. DOL center-based infant care costs $11,722/year in St. Cloud versus $8,306/year in Sioux City. Our composite verdict - Favorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.