St. Louis ranks in the top fourth of 75 U.S. cities ranked by lowest monthly cost of living, according to a new report using crowdsourced data.
Coming in at No. 19, St. Louis has an average monthly cost of living of $1,632.49, according to a report by Move.org, a website that provides information about moving and storage services and costs.
That's higher than Kansas City, which ranked No. 28 with an average monthly cost of living of $1,727.13, and Chicago, at No. 61 and costing $2,495.78 monthly, according to the report.
To produce the ranking, Move.org researched living expenses in 75 popular U.S. cities then ranked them based on affordability.
To calculate each city's monthly average cost of living, Move.org added average costs for the following five categories, taking figures last month from Numbeo.com, a database of user-contributed information worldwide:
- Rent for a one-bedroom apartment
- Utilities (electricity, water, etc.)
- Internet service
- Gasoline
- Food (groceries plus occasional restaurant meals)
Here's the monthly cost of living breakdown for St. Louis:
- Utilities: $188.66
- Internet: $53.24
- Gasoline: $128.01 monthly ($2.51 per gallon)
- Food: $299.71
The least expensive city in which to live is El Paso, Texas, with a monthly cost of living of $1,182.96, according to the report. San Francisco came in with the highest cost of living of the 75 cities ranked, with monthly expenses of $4,210.60.
The figures used in the ranking don't take into account differences in lifestyle, such as use of public transportation or cooking all meals at home, so they should be considered guidelines rather than predictions, according to Move.org. To see the full report, go here.
