US state cost-of-living pressure intelligence from MERIC's keyless quarterly republication of the C2ER Cost of Living Index: one row per quarter per area for the 50 states plus DC and Puerto Rico (52 ranked areas; the United States reference row is the benchmark identity gate, not a panel row). Each row carries the composite index plus the six published components (grocery, housing, utilities, transportation, health, miscellaneous; national average = 100.0), the premium vs the US in index points, the cost multiple of the national average, a per-quarter affordability rank and a documented fixed-band tier (low_cost / below_average / average / above_average / high_cost), and a cost-driver decomposition naming the two components pushing costs furthest above the national average with their point deviations. Method: parse MERIC's state table (closed 52-area table, identity-gated); quarter is read from the page's own heading, never inferred. Caveats: the index prices a professional/upper-management household basket in participating metros, averaged per state — not a median-household measure; the page carries only the current quarter, so history accrues one snapshot per quarter going forward. License: MERIC republishes the C2ER index free of charge; commercial redistribution terms are unclear — verify with C2ER/MERIC before commercial reuse. Attribution to MERIC and C2ER required.

Source: Missouri Economic Research and Information Center
Rows: 52
Columns: 25
Source cadence: Quarterly
Last refreshed: Sep 29, 2026
Theme: economy

Column	Type	Description
quarter	string	C2ER reference quarter read from the page's own heading (YYYY-Qn; e.g. 2026-Q2). Never inferred from the fetch date.
quarter_start	date	First day of the reference quarter (date). Join key with state_code. (unit: date)
state_code	string	USPS 2-letter code for the 50 states and DC; PR for Puerto Rico. Join key with quarter_start.
state_name	string	Area name as published by MERIC.
area_type	string	state, district (DC) or territory (PR).
country	string	Country name (shared normalization layer).
country_code	string	ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 country code (USA).
coli_composite	float	C2ER composite cost-of-living index (national average = 100.0). MERIC averages the participating metros per state. (unit: index points)
coli_grocery	float	Grocery component index. (unit: index points)
coli_housing	float	Housing component index. (unit: index points)
coli_utilities	float	Utilities component index. (unit: index points)
coli_transportation	float	Transportation component index. (unit: index points)
coli_health	float	Health-care component index. (unit: index points)
coli_misc	float	Miscellaneous goods/services component index. (unit: index points)
premium_vs_us_pts	float	Composite minus 100: index points above (positive) or below (negative) the national average. (unit: index points)
cost_multiple	float	Composite / 100: the multiple of national-average cost a household pays (1.86 = 86% above average). (unit: multiple)
affordability_rank	integer	Per-quarter rank by composite ascending (1 = cheapest; ties broken by state_code). (unit: rank)
affordability_tier	string	Fixed-band tier on the composite: low_cost (<90), below_average (90-97.5), average (97.5-102.5), above_average (102.5-115), high_cost (>=115).
primary_cost_driver	string	Component with the largest positive deviation from 100 (grocery, housing, utilities, transportation, health or misc) — the category pushing the state's costs furthest above the national average.
primary_driver_deviation_pts	float	Primary driver's component index minus 100. (unit: index points)
secondary_cost_driver	string	Component with the second-largest deviation from 100.
secondary_driver_deviation_pts	float	Secondary driver's component index minus 100. (unit: index points)
component_spread_pts	float	Max minus min of the six components — how lopsided the state's cost structure is. (unit: index points)
source_url	string	MERIC cost-of-living data series page the snapshot was parsed from.
row_hash	string	Deterministic 16-hex sha256 of quarter + state_code (idempotency key).

First 10 sample rows — a preview, not the complete dataset.

quarter	quarter_start	state_code	state_name	area_type	country	country_code	coli_composite	coli_grocery	coli_housing	coli_utilities	coli_transportation	coli_health	coli_misc	premium_vs_us_pts	cost_multiple	affordability_rank	affordability_tier	primary_cost_driver	primary_driver_deviation_pts	secondary_cost_driver	secondary_driver_deviation_pts	component_spread_pts	source_url	row_hash
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	OK	Oklahoma	state	United States	USA	83	94.1	65.1	97.6	83.9	96.7	87.8	-17	0.83	1	low_cost	utilities	-2.4	health	-3.3	32.5	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	46280b07ca563ae6
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	AL	Alabama	state	United States	USA	86	95.2	68.6	94.1	90.9	85.2	93.8	-14	0.86	2	low_cost	grocery	-4.8	utilities	-5.9	26.6	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	6e9fe49776818180
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	IA	Iowa	state	United States	USA	86.1	96.2	70.6	81.7	93.5	93	93.4	-13.9	0.861	3	low_cost	grocery	-3.8	transportation	-6.5	25.6	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	4bfe8d1cb65749ea
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	WV	West Virginia	state	United States	USA	87	96.4	69.9	93.3	97.7	88.6	93.4	-13	0.87	4	low_cost	transportation	-2.3	grocery	-3.6	27.8	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	e33c102dfdfb1671
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	KS	Kansas	state	United States	USA	87.1	95.3	78.7	96	84.4	89.4	88.9	-12.9	0.871	5	low_cost	utilities	-4	grocery	-4.7	17.3	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	f5ab6f5659acff08
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	MS	Mississippi	state	United States	USA	87.4	94.2	70.8	97.4	92.3	84.8	95.6	-12.6	0.874	6	low_cost	utilities	-2.6	misc	-4.4	26.6	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	504225e718097d25
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	MO	Missouri	state	United States	USA	88.2	95.3	77.7	94	85.3	95.4	92.6	-11.8	0.882	7	low_cost	health	-4.6	grocery	-4.7	17.7	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	14893c839e8166cd
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	AR	Arkansas	state	United States	USA	89	94.6	76.9	98.7	91.5	85.5	94.6	-11	0.89	8	low_cost	utilities	-1.3	grocery	-5.4	21.8	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	9565a10ea4b548df
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	IN	Indiana	state	United States	USA	89.7	98.2	77.5	92.7	98.1	89.7	93.7	-10.3	0.897	9	low_cost	grocery	-1.8	transportation	-1.9	20.7	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	8930cee30280228e
2026-Q2	2026-04-01	TN	Tennessee	state	United States	USA	89.7	96.3	80	88	93	89.5	95	-10.3	0.897	10	low_cost	grocery	-3.7	misc	-5	16.3	https://meric.mo.gov/data/cost-living-data-series	3dcf0c081229a096

Sep 29, 2026Current
20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873 · sha256 0f2eb3c7f873…
52 rows · first snapshot

Point any LLM at the metadata endpoint — the documentation above is machine-readable too (JSON-LD + Croissant).

cURL

curl "https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/meric_state_coli_intel/us_state_coli_quarterly" | jq '{title, rows, columns_count, license}'

Python

import requests

ds = requests.get("https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/meric_state_coli_intel/us_state_coli_quarterly").json()
print(ds["title"], ds["rows"], "rows")

# Sample rows for an LLM context window
for row in ds.get("sample_rows", [])[:5]:
    print(row)

API endpoint: https://datazimuts.com/v1/datasets/meric_state_coli_intel/us_state_coli_quarterly

Tip: fetch /llms.txt for the full machine-readable catalog.

Where this data comes from and what was made from it. Other people's work shows as counts; only shared projects are named.

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Pinned to snapshot 20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873 and its content hash, so readers get exactly the data you used.

APA

Missouri Economic Research and Information Center. (2026). US state cost-of-living pressure intelligence [Data set, snapshot 20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873, sha256 0f2eb3c7f873]. Datazimuts. Retrieved 2026-09-30, from https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/meric_state_coli_intel/us_state_coli_quarterly?snapshot=20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873

BibTeX

@misc{dz_meric_state_coli_intel_us_state_coli_qua_0f2eb3c7,
  title        = {{US state cost-of-living pressure intelligence}},
  author       = {{Missouri Economic Research and Information Center}},
  year         = {2026},
  publisher    = {Datazimuts},
  howpublished = {\url{https://datazimuts.com/en/datasets/meric_state_coli_intel/us_state_coli_quarterly?snapshot=20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873}},
  note         = {Snapshot 20260929T204137Z-0f2eb3c7f873, sha256 0f2eb3c7f87314e3a46965858d2cb8aa3099519ab0c059860d2c0e7f558848db; accessed 2026-09-30}
}

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