City comparison
Austin, TX is about 950 miles (1,500 km) from Jacksonville, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,200 miles, or about 20 hours (about 2 days at 10 h/day) 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 Austin, TX to Jacksonville, FL takes about 1 h 55 min, covering roughly 950 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.
Austin, TX is on Central Time and Jacksonville, FL is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Jacksonville, which puts Austin 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 950,203 in Jacksonville — about the same size. By land area, Jacksonville covers about 745 sq mi vs 325 sq mi for Austin.
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 | Austin | Jacksonville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,281/mo | 20.9% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $243,000 | 89.9% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $64,138 | 35.0% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 96.5 | 2.4% higher in Jacksonville |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 88.2 | 6.0% higher in Jacksonville |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 99.0 | 2.5% higher in Jacksonville |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 98.5 | 2.5% higher in Jacksonville |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Austin, you'd need $96,869 in Jacksonville to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Jacksonville, FL is about 3.1% cheaper overall than Austin, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 11% higher in Austin than in Jacksonville. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $77,495 in Jacksonville to keep the same standard of living.