City comparison
Amarillo, TX is about 800 miles (1,300 km) from Rochester, MN in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,000 miles, or about 16 hours behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Amarillo, TX to Rochester, MN takes about 1 h 34 min, covering roughly 800 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Amarillo, TX is on Mountain Time and Rochester, MN is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Amarillo, it's 1 p.m. in Rochester, which puts Amarillo 1 hours behind.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
Amarillo has a population of 200,360, vs 120,848 in Rochester — about 1.7× larger by population. By land area, Amarillo covers about 105 sq mi vs 57 sq mi for Rochester.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Amarillo | Rochester | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $997/mo | $1,218/mo | 22.2% higher in Rochester |
| Median home value | $172,700 | $268,800 | 55.6% higher in Rochester |
| Median household income | $60,628 | $83,973 | 38.5% higher in Rochester |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 95.5 | 1.4% higher in Rochester |
| Utilities index | 84.5 | 87.8 | 3.9% higher in Rochester |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 92.6 | 4.3% higher in Amarillo |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 92.8 | 3.6% higher in Amarillo |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Amarillo, you'd need $100,069 in Rochester to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Amarillo and Rochester have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. If you earn $80,000 in Amarillo, you'd need about $80,055 in Rochester to keep the same standard of living.