Huntington vs Lafayette
Metro-area medians — Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH Metro Area vs Lafayette, LA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Huntington comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Huntington and Lafayette are closely matched on both cost of living and household income. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
Their widest everyday difference: Lafayette is more educated — 29.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree versus 23.3%.
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, Lafayette leaves you about $1,955/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 Huntington for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
More comparisons
Metros closest to Huntington and Lafayette on cost, income, size, and education.
Huntington vs Lafayette — frequently asked
- Is Huntington cheaper than Lafayette?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Huntington and Lafayette metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Huntington or Lafayette?
- Household incomes are similar — $61,741 in the Huntington metro versus $60,527 in Lafayette (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Huntington or Lafayette?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($69,825 versus $69,405).
- Which has cheaper rent, Huntington or Lafayette?
- Huntington has cheaper rent — a median of $914/mo versus $968/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).