About statenumbers.com

statenumbers.com is an independent reference site for comparing the practical economics of living and working across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. It is built for people weighing a move, a job offer, or a household budget—not for selling a destination.

What we publish

The site combines price levels, housing, income, unemployment, occupation wages, and selected state-tax figures. Its core calculation converts an income to national-price dollars using the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities. That makes the arithmetic inspectable: every published figure identifies its source and vintage, and the formula is available on themethodology page.

Editorial standards

• Source first. We prefer primary public datasets from US government agencies. Tax figures are an exception: they are manually maintained from the Tax Foundation, visibly labelled as manual, and dated.
• Show the limits. We state the data vintage and release lag. A statewide estimate is not a promise about a particular city, job offer, lease, or tax return.
• No invented precision. Missing data remains missing. We do not fill gaps with a model or imply that a median applies to every household.
• Separate facts from interpretation. Tables report the source data. The explanatory text interprets those figures and links back to the underlying measure.
• No pay-for-ranking. Rankings and comparisons are calculated from the disclosed data; they are not sold, sponsored, or influenced by a state, employer, or advertiser.

Updates and corrections

Update timing follows the publisher: unemployment is refreshed monthly, major price and survey series arrive annually with their publishers’ release schedules, and tax records are manually reviewed for the stated tax year. The changelog records the latest data retrieval or verification date for each dataset.

If you find a factual error, a broken source link, or a calculation that cannot be reproduced, email hello@statenumbers.com with the page URL, the issue, and a supporting source where possible. Corrections are checked against the source before publication; material corrections are recorded in the changelog.

Independence and advice

This site is informational. It is not tax, legal, investment, housing, or employment advice. State tax treatment can depend on income, filing status, deductions, locality, and effective dates; a personal decision should be checked against official state guidance and, where needed, a qualified professional. See the terms of use and privacy policy for more.