City comparison
Austin, TX is about 800 miles (1,300 km) from Thornton, CO 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 Austin, TX to Thornton, CO takes about 1 h 33 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.
Austin, TX is on Central Time and Thornton, CO is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 11 a.m. in Thornton, 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 141,799 in Thornton — about 6.8× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 37 sq mi for Thornton.
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 | Thornton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $1,758/mo | 13.5% higher in Thornton |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $445,200 | 3.7% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $95,064 | 9.8% higher in Thornton |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 101.2 | 7.5% higher in Thornton |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 91.2 | 9.6% higher in Thornton |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 99.9 | 3.4% higher in Thornton |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 99.9 | 3.9% higher in Thornton |
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 $113,182 in Thornton to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Austin, TX is about 11.6% cheaper overall than Thornton, CO, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 21% higher in Thornton than in Austin. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $90,545 in Thornton to keep the same standard of living.