United States / 2026 edition
USA Atlas
Compare agricultural land, working pay and the cost of living.
2026 edition · Land: 2026 · Wages: May 2025 · Living-cost history: 2008–2024 · Worker policy snapshot: July 2026.
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Select a state for details. Arrow keys move between tiles; Home and End move to the first and last tile. Add states to Compare in the detail pane.
State observations
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Observed history / U.S. reference
Living-cost history
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Sources & methodology
Land benchmarks
Agricultural land only. Farm real estate includes buildings. These state averages are not buildable lot prices or parcel appraisals. Budget ÷ dollars per acre gives benchmark acres; acres × dollars per acre gives benchmark cost. Closing and development costs are excluded. Gross work hours per acre = land value per acre ÷ median hourly wage, before taxes and living costs; land and wage years may differ. This is not the time needed to save for land. Alaska, Hawaii and DC have USDA gaps.
Pay & opportunity
Comparative buying-power pay = median hourly wage ÷ (latest all-items RPP ÷ 100). Wage and RPP years may differ. This is not take-home pay. Mean pay never substitutes for missing median pay. Employment size, jobs per 1,000 and location quotient measure market size or specialization, not vacancies or demand. Projected annual openings and growth describe a published future period, not live job openings. Openings per 1,000 jobs divides annual projected openings by employment in the projection base year, making large and small job markets easier to compare; it is not a live vacancy rate or a personal hiring probability.
Living costs & history
All-items RPP compares each state with U.S. = 100 in each year; published component U.S. benchmarks can differ from 100. A falling all-items RPP means relatively cheaper, even if actual prices rose. RPP point changes are not inflation. Actual price-growth mode rebases matching regional and U.S. price indices to a common observed start = 100. A change from 100 to 120 means 20% cumulative price growth. Missing years are never filled or estimated.
Worker protections
Policy summaries are evidence of legal provisions with eligibility and exemptions, not a promise about an employer. Follow the cited source and effective date. Any optional third-party advocacy policy index is attributed separately; it is not a government employer rating or a measure of direct worker experience. No overall best-state score is calculated.
Unavailable or suppressed observations display as “Not available” and export as empty cells. Sorting always places missing values last. Filters do not remove states because a measure is missing. All tool calculations run locally. No account is required; site visits are covered by the site privacy policy.
Source links will appear when the atlas data file is loaded.