The cheapest small towns to live in aren’t for everyone.
True, small-town living has plenty of perks: light traffic, a strong sense of community and a slower pace of life. Perhaps best of all, there’s the cost of living, which typically is cheaper in small towns than in expensive big cities.
To get a sense of what inexpensive small-town living really costs, we compiled a list of the 10 cheapest small towns to live in America, with small towns defined as places with populations of approximately 10,000 to 50,000 people.
We compiled our rankings based on the Council for Community and Economic Research’s (C2ER) calculations of living expenses in 265 urban areas. C2ER’s Cost of Living Index measures prices for housing, groceries, utilities, transportation, healthcare, and miscellaneous goods and services, such as going to a movie or getting your hair done at a salon.
The data, which sorts through thousands of prices in hundreds of cities, allowed us to pinpoint the small towns with the absolute lowest living costs. (For larger urban areas, be sure to read our list of the 25 Cheapest Places to Live: U.S. Cities Edition.)
It goes without saying that you should weigh the pros and cons before you pack up and relocate to one of the 10 cheapest small towns in America. While a low cost of living is attractive, it can be offset by issues such as scarce jobs, small paychecks or a lack of things to do in the area. Plan an extended visit to ensure the small town fits your lifestyle.
And so, without further ado, here are the 10 cheapest small towns to live in the U.S.
Source: C2ER’s Cost of Living Index, 2024 Annual Average Data, published May 2024. Index data is based on average prices of goods and services collected during the first quarter of 2024, with index values based on the new weights for 2023. Population data, household incomes, home values, poverty rates and other demographic information are from the U.S. Census Bureau. Local unemployment rates, courtesy of the YCharts are not seasonally adjusted, and are as of August 1, 2024 for the month of June 2024, which is the latest available final data.