How the county ranking works
The same salary buys very different lives in different counties. This calculator takes your pay, works out your take-home pay under the tax rules of each state, and subtracts the cost of the four basics in every county: rent, food, home energy and gasoline. The counties are then ranked by what is left. A county with a positive margin covers the basics on your pay; a negative margin means the basics cost more than you take home.
Why the state matters twice
A state affects the result two ways. First, income tax: the same $70,000 salary is taxed differently in Texas, which has no wage tax, than in Oregon or New York. Second, prices: rent, food and energy vary by county. The ranking combines both, so a high-tax state with cheap housing can beat a no-tax state with expensive housing.
Where the cost figures come from
Rent is the HUD Fair Market Rent for a one- or two-bedroom apartment in the county, the figure HUD uses to set housing voucher limits. Food is the USDA Thrifty Food Plan cost for an adult. Home energy uses state residential electricity and natural gas prices from the Energy Information Administration applied to national average household consumption, and gasoline uses the state average price for about 11,106 miles a year at 24 miles per gallon.
Getting the most from the ranking
Start with your current or expected salary and leave the state filter on "All states" to see the full national picture, then narrow to one state to compare its counties. Switching from a one- to a two-bedroom shows how quickly the margin shrinks when you need more space or plan to share. Each row links to the county page, where you can see the median pay of hundreds of occupations in that county and the full payslip.
The margin is not a budget. It is the money left for everything the basics leave out: health insurance, a car payment and car insurance, childcare, student loans, savings and spending on anything else. A county that leaves $300 a month can be a comfortable fit for someone with no debts and a tight squeeze for a family.
What the ranking does not capture
Counties differ in ways no single number captures: job markets, schools, commute times, climate and property taxes. The county pages add Census figures for median household income, property tax and commuting where they are published. Rent figures are benchmarks for a typical apartment, so a specific listing in a hot neighborhood can cost more than the county figure.