City comparison
Aurora, CO is about 750 miles (1,200 km) from Austin, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 950 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 Aurora, CO to Austin, TX takes about 1 h 31 min, covering roughly 750 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.
Aurora, CO is on Mountain Time and Austin, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Aurora, it's 1 p.m. in Austin, which puts Aurora 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.
Austin has a population of 958,202, vs 387,349 in Aurora — about 2.5× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 165 sq mi for Aurora.
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 | Aurora | Austin | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,651/mo | $1,549/mo | 6.6% higher in Aurora |
| Median home value | $409,700 | $461,500 | 12.6% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $78,685 | $86,556 | 10.0% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 101.2 | 94.2 | 7.5% higher in Aurora |
| Utilities index | 91.2 | 83.2 | 9.6% higher in Aurora |
| Transportation index | 99.9 | 96.6 | 3.4% higher in Aurora |
| Healthcare index | 99.9 | 96.1 | 3.9% higher in Aurora |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Aurora, you'd need $88,592 in Austin to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 11.4% cheaper overall than Aurora, CO, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 21% higher in Aurora than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Aurora, you'd need about $70,874 in Austin to keep the same standard of living.