NH Has Lowest Grocery Bill Per Person Per Month in the Entire US (How’d Your State Do?)

We like to talk about how much better living in New Hampshire is than anywhere else, but I think this is my first rodeo with this statistic. The cost per month of groceries per person.

It’s not exactly definitive. The survey measured the cost of groceries per person in each state’s largest city. Manchester is not Boston or Atlanta, or LA.

For our rankings, we looked at Numbeo’s estimated monthly food costs¹ in each state’s most populous city.² These prices only include the costs for basic groceries. Additional food costs like restaurant bills were not included in these prices.

But we’ll take the win!

The average cost of groceries in America is $355.50 a month per person. However, this number can vary greatly depending on factors like age and personal eating habits. Location is another important—though potentially surprising—factor in determining food costs. Groceries cost more in some US cities and states than others.

The research comes to us from Move.org (not MoveOn.org). They provide links and search options to help you find moving companies, packing, truck rental, storage, and even junk removal companies.

Here are their ten worst and best states in this survey.

New Hampshire Ranked best in New England at #51 (lowest cost per person per month). Vermont is the second-worst (#2) with Massachusetts (#8). Rhode Island landed at (#15), Maine at (#19), and Connecticut (#28).

Another aspect of the New Hampshire Advantage and all the more reason to fight to keep it. Food inflation is a regressive tax on low-income families. Even a slight rise in these costs has a huge impact on their budgets.

New Hampshire has higher average incomes, low crime, great quality of life and health outcomes, and generally does very well in most categories. The cost of living is above average in NH, as are electric rates, but the total tax burden is consistently one of the lowest in the nation.

The idea that groceries are also cheaper here surprises me, and I like to see more data, but for now, as I said above, we’ll take the win until we learn more.

See where your state ranked here, with #1 being the most expensive and #51 the least.

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