Businesses use the cost of living as a main factor in deciding where to conduct their business. CNBC ranked “America’s Top States for Business” using the cost of living index. The lower the cost of living, the higher the overall score.
Here are America’s top 10 least expensive states to live in as ranked by CNBC, as well as a sampling of the prices you’ll pay for some basics in the most expensive area of the state.
The data mainly comes from average price data based on “Council for Community and Economic Research C2ER Cost of Living Index, Q1 2013.”
You can see that report here:>
The council has developed a county-level cost of living index for the United States based on an econometric model that identifies key determinants of an area’s cost of living. Here is a map based on the average cost of living per county in the U.S.
