Poughkeepsie vs Worcester
Metro-area medians — Kiryas Joel-Poughkeepsie-Newburgh, NY Metro Area vs Worcester, MA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Worcester comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Worcester costs about 7% less to live in, and household incomes are similar. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Worcester.
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, Worcester leaves you about $3,330/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 Worcester for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
Poughkeepsie vs Worcester — frequently asked
- Is Poughkeepsie cheaper than Worcester?
- Worcester is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 7% below Poughkeepsie's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Poughkeepsie or Worcester?
- Household incomes are similar — $95,125 in the Poughkeepsie metro versus $96,602 in Worcester (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).
- Does a paycheck go further in Poughkeepsie or Worcester?
- A paycheck stretches further in Worcester. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $94,225 there versus $86,934 in Poughkeepsie.
- Which has cheaper rent, Poughkeepsie or Worcester?
- Worcester has cheaper rent — a median of $1,563/mo versus $1,688/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).