Memphis vs New Orleans
Metro-area medians — Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metro Area vs New Orleans-Metairie, LA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
New Orleans comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Memphis and New Orleans cost about the same to live in, but Memphis households earn about 9% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Memphis.
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, Memphis leaves you about $2,325/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 Memphis for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
Choose New Orleans for
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Memphis vs New Orleans — frequently asked
- Is Memphis cheaper than New Orleans?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Memphis and New Orleans metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Memphis or New Orleans?
- Memphis has the higher median household income — $68,124 versus $62,373 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 9% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Memphis or New Orleans?
- A paycheck stretches further in Memphis. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $73,904 there versus $67,360 in New Orleans.
- Which has cheaper rent, Memphis or New Orleans?
- New Orleans has cheaper rent — a median of $1,262/mo versus $1,330/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).