St. Louis → Columbus

Moving from St. Louis to Columbus shifts your BEA Regional Price Parity from 95.1 to 95.5 (100 = US average), so a St. Louis salary needs to be multiplied by 1.00 to hold the same purchasing power in Columbus. On rent, HUD Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom goes from $916/month in St. Louis to $1,430/month in Columbus - a higher monthly bill of $514, or $6,168/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 $70,997 in Columbus - a raw gap of $2,923 higher. The Columbus labor market has 1,092,320 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 Columbus are 463 and 293 per 100,000 (state-level). NCES student-teacher ratios run 12.8:1 at origin versus 18.2:1 at destination. Our composite verdict - Favorable - weighs all seven federal sources; the dimension table below lets you override that with your personal priorities.