Cedar Rapids vs Evansville
Metro-area medians — Cedar Rapids, IA Metro Area vs Evansville, IN Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Cedar Rapids comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Cedar Rapids and Evansville cost about the same to live in, but Cedar Rapids households earn about 12% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Cedar Rapids.
Their widest everyday difference: Cedar Rapids has the tighter job market — 2.8% unemployment versus 4.5%.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Cedar Rapids leaves you about $1,186/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Cedar Rapids for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
More comparisons
Metros closest to Cedar Rapids and Evansville on cost, income, size, and education.
Cedar Rapids vs Evansville — frequently asked
- Is Cedar Rapids cheaper than Evansville?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Cedar Rapids and Evansville metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Cedar Rapids or Evansville?
- Cedar Rapids has the higher median household income — $75,295 versus $67,459 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 12% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Cedar Rapids or Evansville?
- A paycheck stretches further in Cedar Rapids. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $84,636 there versus $73,703 in Evansville.
- Which has cheaper rent, Cedar Rapids or Evansville?
- Cedar Rapids has cheaper rent — a median of $933/mo versus $1,007/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).