City comparison
Austin, TX is about 1,400 miles (2,300 km) from Wilkes-Barre, PA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,800 miles, or about 30 hours (about 3 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 Wilkes-Barre, PA takes about 2 h 52 min, covering roughly 1,400 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 Wilkes-Barre, PA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Austin, it's 1 p.m. in Wilkes-Barre, 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 44,123 in Wilkes-Barre — about 21.7× larger by population. By land area, Austin covers about 325 sq mi vs 6.8 sq mi for Wilkes-Barre.
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 | Wilkes-Barre | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,549/mo | $897/mo | 72.7% higher in Austin |
| Median home value | $461,500 | $98,200 | 370.0% higher in Austin |
| Median household income | $86,556 | $46,597 | 85.8% higher in Austin |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 100.7 | 6.9% higher in Wilkes-Barre |
| Utilities index | 83.2 | 105.9 | 27.3% higher in Wilkes-Barre |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 97.6 | 1.0% higher in Wilkes-Barre |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 98.3 | 2.3% higher in Wilkes-Barre |
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 $81,964 in Wilkes-Barre to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Wilkes-Barre, PA is about 18% cheaper overall than Austin, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 79% higher in Austin than in Wilkes-Barre. If you earn $80,000 in Austin, you'd need about $65,572 in Wilkes-Barre to keep the same standard of living.