According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, Massachusetts tops the list, requiring $116,022 yearly, while West Virginia is the most affordable at $78,790.
To live comfortably, a person in the top 11 most expensive states in the union must earn more than $100,000 annually.
Bruno Venditti of Visual Capitalist created this map, which illustrates the required income for single adults in each state of the union. The MIT Living Wage Calculator, which was last updated on February 14, 2024, provided the cost of essentials, which SmartAsset used to determine the required income.
In this scenario, “comfortable” was defined as the annual income required to meet a 50/30/20 budget, allocating 50% of wages to needs such as housing and utility expenditures, 30% to discretionary spending, and 20% to savings or investments.
Massachusetts Ranks First
The most costly state to comfortably live in is Massachusetts. An unmarried adult must earn at least $116,022 a year, or $55.78 per hour.
| Rank | State | Salary needed for a single working adult |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Massachusetts | $116,022 |
| 2 | Hawaii | $113,693 |
| 3 | California | $113,651 |
| 4 | New York | $111,738 |
| 5 | Washington | $106,496 |
| 6 | Colorado | $103,293 |
| 7 | New Jersey | $103,002 |
| 8 | Maryland | $102,918 |
| 9 | Oregon | $101,088 |
| 10 | Rhode Island | $100,838 |
| 11 | Connecticut | $100,381 |
| 12 | Virginia | $99,965 |
| 13 | New Hampshire | $98,093 |
| 14 | Arizona | $97,344 |
| 15 | Georgia | $96,886 |
| 16 | Alaska | $96,762 |
| 17 | Vermont | $95,763 |
| 18 | Illinois | $95,098 |
| 19 | Delaware | $94,141 |
| 20 | Utah | $93,683 |
| 21 | Nevada | $93,434 |
| 22 | Florida | $93,309 |
| 23 | Maine | $91,686 |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | $91,312 |
| 25 | North Carolina | $89,690 |
| 26 | Minnesota | $89,232 |
| 27 | Idaho | $88,733 |
| 28 | South Carolina | $88,317 |
| 29 | Wyoming | $87,651 |
| 30 | Texas | $87,027 |
| 31 | Tennessee | $86,403 |
| 32 | Indiana | $85,030 |
| 33 | Montana | $84,739 |
| 34 | Kansas | $84,656 |
| 35 | Michigan | $84,365 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | $84,115 |
| 37 | Missouri | $84,032 |
| 38 | Alabama | $83,824 |
| 39 | Nebraska | $83,699 |
| 40 | New Mexico | $83,616 |
| 41 | Iowa | $83,366 |
| 42 | Mississippi | $82,742 |
| 43 | Louisiana | $82,451 |
| 44 | South Dakota | $81,453 |
| 45 | Ohio | $80,704 |
| 45 | Kentucky | $80,704 |
| 47 | North Dakota | $80,538 |
| 48 | Oklahoma | $80,413 |
| 49 | Arkansas | $79,456 |
| 50 | West Virginia | $78,790 |
West Virginia is the most affordable state for a single adult, requiring only an estimated $37.88 per hour, or $78,790 yearly, as their income.
According to Labor Bureau data, the average annual income for a single, full-time worker in the United States is approximately $60,000, therefore to live comfortably on your own in the top five states, one would need to make almost twice as much as the average earner.
Recently, GreatGameIndia also reported on the income a family needs to live comfortably in every US state. According to SmartAsset, using the MIT Living Wage Calculator, Massachusetts is the most costly state to live comfortably, and Mississippi is the cheapest.
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So, how many individuals, or percentage of individuals, in each state make less than those numbers and, therefore, live ‘uncomfortably’?