WASHINGTON — One-hundred dollars can buy anywhere from $81 worth of goods and services to nearly $126, depending on your metropolitan area.
The accompanying map produced by the Tax Foundation uses first-ever government data released this year to show how the real value of $100 varies by state. A variety of factors conspire to make Hawaii the state where $100 buys you the least ($85.32) and Mississippi the state where it can buy the most ($115.74).
Another Tax Foundation maps looks at the relative value of $100 by metropolitan area, at least for the more than 380 areas where data were available. Naturally, the variation is greater: $100 is only worth about $81.37 in urban Honolulu, but it can buy you roughly $125.94 in goods and services in Danville, Ill.
In roughly six of seven metro areas, the purchasing power of $100 is greater than its face value, according to our review of the original government data, produced by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The remaining metro areas are like Honolulu: $100 buys you less than that in goods and services.