Residents of rural Morristown, Tenn., need only $49,114 a year in income to meet basic needs, research from think tank Economic Policy Institute found.
In contrast, families in New York City or Washington need at least double that amount to meet basic needs.
“The findings demonstrate the wide gap in cost of living between places like Morristown, a mostly rural region nestled in the mountains of eastern Tennessee, and the New York metro area, home to more than 20 million people,” writes reporter Eric Morath for The Wall Street Journal’s real Time Economics blog.