PONCA CITY, OK - The Ponca City Development Authority (PCDA) Board of Trustees heard some good news about the Ponca City economy this week. Among the 271 urban areas that participated in the first quarter of the 2023 Cost of Living Index, Ponca City has ranked in the Top 10 Least Expensive Urban Areas. The Cost of Living Index (COLI) is published quarterly by C2ER – The Council for Community and Economic Research. Ponca City Development Authority (PCDA) staff has been collecting Cost of Living data three times a year for over 17 years. .

Katherine Long, PCDA’s Small Business & Information Coordinator, was enthusiastic on the COLI ranking. “Normally, Ponca City sits at about 86 to 89% of the average cost of living,” Long said. “A community with an average cost of living is 100% and cities such as New York can be double that at 222.0% and some communities range lower such as Harlingen, Texas. It is great to see other Oklahoma communities, Muskogee and Lawton, listed on the Least Expensive side of the percentages.”

The following are the ten most and least expensive urban areas in the Cost of Living Index (COLI) review of quarter one in 2023: Most Expensive:

1. New York (Manhattan), NY - COL Index: 222.0 2. Honolulu, HI - COL Index: 179.0 3. San Francisco, CA - COL Index: 169.9 4. New York (Brooklyn), NY - COL Index: 159.1 5. Orange County, CA - COL Index: 150.3 6. Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA - COL Index: 149.1 7. Washington DC - COL Index: 148.7 8. Boston, MA - COL Index: 148.4 9. Seattle, WA - COL Index: 144.5 10. San Diego, CA - COL Index: 142.5

Least Expensive:

1. Harlingen, TX - COL Index: 75.9 2. Decateur, IL - COL Index: 77.6 3. Muskogee, OK - COL Index: 80.0 4. McAllen, TX - COL Index: 80.9 5. Tupelo, MS - COL Index: 81.7 6. Lawton, OK - COL Index: 82.5 7. Kalamazoo, MI - COL Index: 82.9 8. Ponca City, OK - COL Index: 82.9 9. Pittsburg, KS - COL Index: 83.1 10. Conway, AR - COL Index: 83.2 The Cost of Living Index measures regional differences in the cost of consumer goods and services, excluding taxes and non-consumer expenditures, for professional and managerial households in the top 20 percent for household income. Covering 61 different items, prices are collected quarterly for Ponca City by Ponca City Development Authority. The pricing information provided by COLI does not include the name of the stores and the data collected by staff is not shared with any business competitors.

The composite index is based on six component categories – housing, utilities, grocery items, transportation, health care, and miscellaneous goods and services. Ponca City regularly ranks in the 85 to 89 percentiles for Cost of Living. Found on the GoPonca.

com website, the Cost of Living Calculator compares Ponca City costs in these six categories with any of the other 271 participating communities in the United States. This calculator allows those seeking more information on cost of living before moving to Ponca City to accurately forecast the economics of the community.

For more information on the Cost of Living Index or any of the PCDA programs, please visit www.GoPonca.com or call the PCDA office at 580.765.7070.