Indianapolis vs St. Louis
Metro-area medians — Indianapolis-Carmel-Greenwood, IN Metro Area vs St. Louis, MO-IL Metro Area — not the cities proper.
St. Louis comes out ahead, winning 4 of the 4 clearly-decided measures.
Indianapolis and St. Louis are closely matched on both cost of living and household income. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
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, St. Louis leaves you about $17/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 St. Louis for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
Indianapolis vs St. Louis — frequently asked
- Is Indianapolis cheaper than St. Louis?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Indianapolis and St. Louis metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Indianapolis or St. Louis?
- Household incomes are similar — $80,239 in the Indianapolis metro versus $81,679 in St. Louis (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Indianapolis or St. Louis?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($83,848 versus $85,898).
- Which has cheaper rent, Indianapolis or St. Louis?
- St. Louis has cheaper rent — a median of $1,154/mo versus $1,273/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).