{"h1":"Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living","faq":[{"a":"Foster leads the United States for pay after the cost of living in this job family: its median posted salary buys what $232k buys at average US prices.","q":"Which city ranks first: best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living?"},{"a":"28 cities have at least 30 openings with pay posted, so the list has 28 entries.","q":"How many cities are ranked?"},{"a":"The score is the median posted annual salary (the midpoint of each posted range) for this job family in a city, divided by its local price level, with the United States at 100. Price levels are the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the city's metro area, or its state where no metro figure exists. Only cities with at least 20 listings in the family that post a salary are ranked. A city where one employer posts more than 50% of its openings is not ranked, so a single company cannot decide a city's score.","q":"How is the ranking calculated?"},{"a":"Every month. This is the November 2026 edition. Older editions stay on this site at their own dated addresses.","q":"How often is it updated?"}],"lead":"Foster leads the United States for pay after the cost of living in this job family: its median posted salary buys what $232k buys at average US prices.","minN":30,"rows":[{"n":24,"key":"CA|foster","sub":"CA","href":null,"name":"Foster","rank":1,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$257k"},{"label":"State prices vs US average","value":"+11%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"24"}],"value":232384.8238482385,"change":null,"employers":["Gilead Sciences"],"valueLabel":"$232k"},{"n":70,"key":"CA|san mateo","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-mateo","name":"San Mateo","rank":2,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$267k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+16%"},{"label":"Openings with pay 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francisco","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-francisco","name":"San Francisco","rank":5,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$239k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+16%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"659"}],"value":206314.8788927336,"change":null,"employers":["OpenAI","Anthropic","University Of California San Francisco Foundation"],"valueLabel":"$206k"},{"n":30,"key":"CA|san jose","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-jose","name":"San Jose","rank":6,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$225k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+10%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"30"}],"value":203804.3478260869,"change":null,"employers":["Super Micro Computer","Advanced Micro Devices","Cisco Systems"],"valueLabel":"$204k"},{"n":130,"key":"CA|mountain view","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/mountain-view","name":"Mountain View","rank":7,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted 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Devices","Cloudflare"],"valueLabel":"$184k"},{"n":32,"key":"VA|mclean","sub":"VA","href":"/places/virginia/city/mclean","name":"McLean","rank":14,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$186k"},{"label":"State prices vs US average","value":"+1%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"32"}],"value":184223.5410484669,"change":null,"employers":["Capital One","The MITRE","Steampunk"],"valueLabel":"$184k"},{"n":120,"key":"MA|boston","sub":"MA","href":"/places/massachusetts/city/boston","name":"Boston","rank":15,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$194k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+8%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"120"}],"value":178901.2003693444,"change":null,"employers":["Vertex Pharmaceuticals","State Street","Confidential"],"valueLabel":"$179k"},{"n":46,"key":"NY|new york","sub":"NY","href":"/places/new-york/city/new-york","name":"New York","rank":16,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$198k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+13%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"46"}],"value":176243.3392539965,"change":null,"employers":["Amazon","Publicis Groupe","Morgan Stanley"],"valueLabel":"$176k"},{"n":33,"key":"TX|dallas","sub":"TX","href":"/places/texas/city/dallas","name":"Dallas","rank":17,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$180k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+3%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"33"}],"value":174587.7788554801,"change":null,"employers":["Amazon","Shield AI","Texas Instruments"],"valueLabel":"$175k"},{"n":95,"key":"WA|seattle","sub":"WA","href":"/places/washington/city/seattle","name":"Seattle","rank":18,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$190k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+11%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"95"}],"value":171017.101710171,"change":null,"employers":["Amazon","Blue Origin","Shield AI"],"valueLabel":"$171k"},{"n":497,"key":"NY|new york","sub":"NY","href":"/places/new-york/city/new-york","name":"New York","rank":19,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$190k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+13%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"497"}],"value":168738.8987566608,"change":null,"employers":["Amazon","Publicis Groupe","Morgan Stanley"],"valueLabel":"$169k"},{"n":47,"key":"CA|los angeles","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/los-angeles","name":"Los Angeles","rank":20,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$178k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+14%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"47"}],"value":156521.1267605634,"change":null,"employers":["K2 Space","Cedars-sinai Medical Center","Apex Space"],"valueLabel":"$157k"},{"n":91,"key":"IL|chicago","sub":"IL","href":"/places/illinois/city/chicago","name":"Chicago","rank":21,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$155k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+4%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"91"}],"value":149613.8996138996,"change":null,"employers":["Publicis Groupe","Northern Trust","Confidential"],"valueLabel":"$150k"},{"n":53,"key":"VA|arlington","sub":"VA","href":"/places/virginia/city/arlington","name":"Arlington","rank":22,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$150k"},{"label":"State prices vs US average","value":"+1%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"53"}],"value":148367.9525222552,"change":null,"employers":["Amazon","AWS","Bloomberg Industry Group"],"valueLabel":"$148k"},{"n":31,"key":"CA|san diego","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/san-diego","name":"San Diego","rank":23,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$165k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+12%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"31"}],"value":147184.9865951743,"change":null,"employers":["Qualcomm Inc/De","Qualcomm Technologies","General Atomics"],"valueLabel":"$147k"},{"n":54,"key":"CO|denver","sub":"CO","href":"/places/colorado/city/denver","name":"Denver","rank":24,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$154k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+6%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"54"}],"value":145085.0661625709,"change":null,"employers":["True Anomaly","Blue Origin","Amazon"],"valueLabel":"$145k"},{"n":44,"key":"GA|atlanta","sub":"GA","href":"/places/georgia/city/atlanta","name":"Atlanta","rank":25,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$144k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+0%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"44"}],"value":144046.9530469531,"change":null,"employers":["Emory University","Oxford College of Emory University","Capgemini Invent"],"valueLabel":"$144k"},{"n":22,"key":"CA|irvine","sub":"CA","href":"/places/california/city/irvine","name":"Irvine","rank":26,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$159k"},{"label":"State prices vs US average","value":"+11%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"22"}],"value":143373.9837398374,"change":null,"employers":["Anduril Industries","Field AI","St Edwards University"],"valueLabel":"$143k"},{"n":40,"key":"NC|charlotte","sub":"NC","href":"/places/north-carolina/city/charlotte","name":"Charlotte","rank":27,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$138k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"−3%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"40"}],"value":141950.1541623844,"change":null,"employers":["Truist Financial","Scout Motors","SMBC Americas"],"valueLabel":"$142k"},{"n":95,"key":"DC|washington","sub":"DC","href":"/places/district-of-columbia/city/washington","name":"Washington","rank":28,"stats":[{"label":"Median posted pay","value":"$150k"},{"label":"Local prices vs US average","value":"+9%"},{"label":"Openings with pay posted","value":"95"}],"value":137741.0468319559,"change":null,"employers":["Anduril Industries","Shield AI","CACI International"],"valueLabel":"$138k"}],"slug":"best-cities-for-data-and-analytics-pay-vs-cost-of-living","unit":"openings","scope":{"id":"us","kind":"national","name":"United States"},"title":"Best cities for data and analytics pay after cost of living","family":"Job families","method":["The score is the median posted annual salary (the midpoint of each posted range) for this job family in a city, divided by its local price level, with the United States at 100.","Price levels are the Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities for the city's metro area, or its state where no metro figure exists. Only cities with at least 20 listings in the family that post a salary are ranked.","A city where one employer posts more than 50% of its openings is not ranked, so a single company cannot decide a city's score."],"builtAt":"2026-11-02T22:06:17.622Z","edition":"2026-11","measure":"fnpay","sources":["NextChapter job data: posted annual salary ranges","Bureau of Economic Analysis regional price parities 2024 (metro areas and states)"],"baseline":{"label":"the typical city in our data","valueLabel":"$180k"},"keyFacts":["#1 Foster, CA: $232k","#2 San Mateo, CA: $231k","#3 Sunnyvale, CA: $213k","28 cities ranked in the United States","Data as of November 2026"],"placeNoun":"cities","commentary":["The top ten is tightly packed: Foster leads on $232k, and #10 Ann Arbor is at $191k.","Foster reaches #1 on a sample of 24 openings with pay posted, a smaller market than most of the top ten, so its rank can move more from month to month.","San Francisco is the largest market in the top ten, with 659 openings with pay posted behind its figure.","Cities with fewer than 30 openings with pay posted are not ranked, and small differences between neighbouring ranks are not meaningful."],"license":"Free to use and share with a link to https://launchyournextchapter.com/rankings/best-cities-for-data-and-analytics-pay-vs-cost-of-living"}