City comparison
Austin, TX is about 900 miles (1,400 km) from Surprise, AZ in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,100 miles, or about 19 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 Austin, TX to Surprise, AZ takes about 1 h 47 min, covering roughly 900 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 Surprise, AZ is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 11 a.m. in Surprise, which puts Austin 1 hours ahead.
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 145,591 in Surprise — about 6.6× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 110 sq mi for Surprise.
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 | Surprise | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,822/mo | 17.6% higher in Surprise |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $352,600 | 30.9% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $87,756 | 1.4% higher in Surprise |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 95.8 | 1.7% higher in Surprise |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 96.2 | 15.6% higher in Surprise |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 104.1 | 7.7% higher in Surprise |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 104.0 | 8.2% higher in Surprise |
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 $104,797 in Surprise to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 4.6% cheaper overall than Surprise, AZ, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 2% higher in Surprise than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $83,837 in Surprise to keep the same standard of living.