St. Louis → Chicago-Naperville-Elgin

Moving from St. Louis to Chicago-Naperville-Elgin shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 95.1 to 103.6 (100 = US average), so a St. Louis salary needs to be multiplied by 1.09 to hold the same purchasing power in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $916/month in St. Louis to $1,781/month in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin - a higher 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 $68,074 in St. Louis versus $77,100 in Chicago-Naperville-Elgin - a raw gap of $9,026 higher. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin labor market has 4,480,500 tracked jobs against 1,311,920 in St. Louis, 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. Louis and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin are 463 and 277 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 12.8:1 at origin versus 14:1 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.