What It Costs to Live in Wyoming — County by County (2025 Q2)

Wyoming’s newest Cost of Living Index is out, and it’s a handy reality check on where your paycheck stretches — and where it doesn’t, K2 Radio reports.

The state’s Economic Analysis Division tallied prices for a big basket of everyday stuff and split the results two ways:

• Inflation (how much prices rose year-over-year), and
• Comparative Cost of Living (how pricey each county is versus the statewide average).

Statewide inflation over the past year landed at 4.2% — hotter than the 2.7% US rate (June 2024–June 2025). Regionally, it’s a tight pack:

• Central: 4.3%
• Northeast: 4.3%
• Southeast: 4.2%
• Northwest: 4.0%
• Southwest: 3.8%

What’s driving it? Mainly roofs and rent.

Category movers (Wyoming, YoY):

• Housing: +5.8% (the heavyweight)
• Apparel: +4.9%
• Medical: +3.8%
• Food: +3.7%
• Recreation & Personal Care: +2.7%
• Transportation: +0.4% (basically flat)

If you’ve guessed Teton County tops the list, you’re right. Its Comparative Cost of Living Index is 175 — that’s 75% above the statewide average. Remember: this index is a snapshot of relative expense, not a measure of inflation. So a county’s rank tells you how pricey it is right now compared to Wyoming overall, not how much it changed since last time.

The report also breaks out costs by category — housing, food, transportation, and more — so you can see exactly what’s pricey where you live (or where you’re headed).

Twice a year, the state checks prices on 140 items in 28 cities and towns (covering each county’s largest community and any town over 5,000 people). In counties with multiple survey spots, prices are population-weighted to reflect where people actually live.

Spending weights (because rent isn’t the same as shampoo):

• Housing: 49.4%
• Transportation: 16.6%
• Food: 13.7%
• Recreation & Personal Care: 8.9%
• Medical: 8.3%
• Apparel: 3.2%

That mix mirrors a typical Wyoming household budget, which makes the index useful for policymakers, businesses — and anyone trying to plan a move or make a budget that won’t break.

Whether you’re grocery-listing, apartment hunting, or eyeing a job in another county, the 2025 Q2 WCLI gives a clean read on where costs are heating up and where they’re holding steady. Bottom line: housing is still the pressure point, regional inflation is running a bit hotter than the national average, and county-to-county differences are real — especially in Teton.