All-items parity
89.0
US = 100.0
North Dakota (ND) | All-items parity 89.0
North Dakota Cost of Living 2026
North Dakota reads 89.0 on the BEA all-items price parity for 2024, eighth-cheapest in the nation, with housing rents at 71.4 and a median home of $266,100. The 2023 tax reform gave it the lowest income tax of any state that levies one at all: a zero bracket covering most filers and a top rate of just 2.5%, paid for by Bakken oil revenue. Median household income of $77,871 beats the national figure, hospitals per capita run the highest tier in the country, and the honest price of all of it is winter on the northern plains.
Lowest income tax of any taxing state8th-cheapest price levelIncome above the US median
Median Home
$266,100
2BR rent $950/mo
Median Income
$77,871
Household, Census ACS
Category breakdown
The four BEA price parities vs the nation
| Category | ND index | National avg | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| All items | 89.0 | 100.0 | -11.0% |
| Services: housing rents | 71.4 | 100.6 | -29.0% |
| Goods | 95.7 | 99.6 | -3.9% |
| Services: utilities | 73.7 | 98.4 | -25.1% |
| Services: other | 91.2 | 100.1 | -8.9% |
U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes these four component parities and no others. There is no federal grocery, healthcare or transportation price parity, so this table shows none. Food at home sits inside Goods; medical and transport services sit inside Services: other.
Sources: BEA Regional Price Parities by State (table SARPP), 2024 reference year, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Census ACS 2024 1-year (median income, home value), ND Office of State Tax Commissioner (income tax), ND Legacy Fund reports, Tax Foundation (effective property tax), EIA (electricity rates), KFF (uninsured rate).
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Pros / offsets
What works in North Dakota.
An income tax most residents do not pay. The 2023 reform zeroed the rate for the majority of filers and capped the top at 2.5% (1.95-2.5% on paper), the lowest schedule of any income-taxing state, with oil extraction and production taxes carrying the budget instead.
High wages against cheap living, the rare combination. Median household income of $77,871 exceeds the national median while the price level sits eighth-lowest; almost every other cheap state pairs its prices with poor pay, North Dakota does not.
Fargo is a real economy. Microsoft's campus, a dense startup-and-agtech scene around NDSU, and Sanford and Essentia health systems make greater Fargo a genuine career market with family housing around the $266,100 state median and twenty-minute commutes.
Services are funded like an oil state. The Legacy Fund banks billions in oil revenue, 4.2 hospitals per capita runs among the nation's highest, and cheap power at 11.65 cents per kWh (utilities parity 73.7) comes from lignite and wind in surplus.
Cons / drivers
Where North Dakota costs more.
Winter is the state's real tax. Average lows of 24 degrees, wind chills that close interstates, gas bills averaging $88 a month in season, block heaters, winter tires and a heating season that runs from October to April: the climate costs money, time and recruits.
The oil economy cycles hard. Williston and the Bakken boom and retrench with crude prices, rents and services in the oil patch swing with them, and state revenue (hence the generous tax code) carries the same exposure.
Distance and thinness outside the cities. Four metro areas hold most of the economy; rural counties post the familiar plains pattern of cheap housing, shrinking towns and long drives, and major-league amenities mean Minneapolis, five hours from Fargo.
Property tax remains the local lever. At 0.94% effective it is moderate, but with income tax near zero, local budgets lean on it, and relief credits (primary-residence credits funded from state surpluses) shift with each legislature.
Tax + benefit signals
North Dakota tax and access overview
State income tax
1.95-2.5%
Graduated or flat
Property tax effective
0.94%
Of assessed value, annual
Sales tax (state)
5.00%
Local can add 1-4% more
Uninsured rate
6.8%
Medicaid: expanded
Your take-home pay in North Dakota
Federal, North Dakota and any local income tax on your salary, per paycheck.
The mortgage on a $266,100 home
Monthly payment at today’s rates with North Dakota property tax (0.94%) and average home insurance.
Metro variation
State averages mask city variation.
North Dakota averages 89.0 on the BEA all-items parity, with four small metros and the oil patch around it:
Fargo (with West Fargo and Moorhead, MN): The state's growth pole: tech, healthcare and university payrolls, the liveliest downtown on the northern plains, and new-construction suburbs in the $300,000s; the Minnesota side trades at similar prices under a very different tax code.
Bismarck-Mandan: The capital pairs government stability with energy-sector wealth; prices run closest to Fargo's with an even tighter labor market.
Grand Forks and Minot: University-and-air-base towns in the $200,000s, the practical value tier, with Minot carrying oil-patch spillover.
Williston and the Bakken: Boom-cycle pricing: oilfield wages against housing and services that overshoot in both directions as crude moves; the state's highest rents at the peak, its emptiest apartments in the troughs.
Choose Fargo for the career market, Bismarck for stability, the patch for wages, and price the winter identically everywhere.
Frequently Asked
North Dakota cost of living, answered
Do most North Dakotans really pay no income tax?
Since the 2023 reform, yes: the zero bracket covers single filers up to roughly the mid-$40,000s of taxable income (about double for joint filers), which exempts the majority outright, and income above it is taxed at just 1.95% to 2.5%, the lowest top rate of any state with an income tax. Oil extraction and production taxes plus the Legacy Fund's earnings fill the gap. Full repeal is debated most sessions; the trajectory has been one direction for a decade.
How does North Dakota pair high income with low prices?
Oil, agriculture and scarcity of workers: the Bakken and a strong ag economy push the median household income to $77,871, above the national median, while a thin population across cheap land keeps the price level at 89.0, eighth-lowest. Employers short of staff bid wages up at every level, fast food included. The purchasing-power result is among the best in the country, bought at the price of the climate and the distances.
What is Fargo actually like as a place to move?
The plains' quiet overachiever: Microsoft's second-largest campus, a startup scene seeded by NDSU engineering, two large health systems, and a downtown of breweries and restaurants that surprises every visitor. Family homes in the $250,000s-$350,000s, twenty-minute commutes, strong schools and the lowest-crime tier of US metros. The trade is five months of hard winter and a five-hour drive to the nearest bigger city; Fargo's answer is that everything you need is already there.
What does a North Dakota winter cost?
Budget it like a utility: gas bills averaging $88 a month across a season that runs October to April, electricity at 11.65 cents per kWh for the dark months, engine block heaters and winter tires as standard equipment, and the occasional ground-blizzard day when nothing moves. Housing is built for it (the stock is well-insulated), and the utilities parity of 73.7 shows the rates are cheap; the season simply makes you buy more.
Is the Bakken still a wage opportunity?
At steady-state rather than gold-rush levels: production remains near record highs with a fraction of the boom-era drilling crews, so the frantic six-figure-for-anyone era is over, but experienced oilfield trades, CDL drivers and midstream operators still out-earn national rates substantially, and Williston's housing overshoot left it affordable again. The caveat is cyclicality: price your move on the wage lasting, not on the boom returning, and keep skills portable.
North Dakota or South Dakota for low-tax plains living?
South Dakota levies no income tax at all; North Dakota's zero bracket means most households pay none anyway, and its top 2.5% rate is trivial by national standards. North Dakota counters with slightly higher incomes (median household income $77,871 vs South Dakota's $76,881), oil-funded services and more hospitals per capita; South Dakota offers Sioux Falls' larger private job market and milder (slightly) winters. For most earners the difference is lifestyle and employer, not taxes; the /calculator compares your exact income mix.