The Brief
- New York City ranked No. 1 for cost-of-living, driven by sky-high rent and essential costs that outpaced even relatively high average salaries, while California cities (San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles) dominated the rest of the top rankings.
- The findings align with broader financial stress nationwide, as separate data shows nearly one in four U.S. households now live paycheck to paycheck.
Cost of living pressures are intensifying in major U.S. cities, with new research showing where it’s rising the most.
Plasma, a layer-1 blockchain company specializing in stablecoin payments, conducted the research through a weighted analysis of inflation rates across 30 of the most populous U.S. cities.
The company looked at the cities to analyze factors such as each capital’s consumer price index, average housing costs, monthly salary, and monthly costs such as groceries, utilities, transportation, clothing, sports & leisure, childcare and more.
Cost of living rising the most in New York City
By the numbers:…