City comparison
Bentonville, AR is about 800 miles (1,300 km) from Winston-Salem, NC 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 Bentonville, AR to Winston-Salem, NC 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.
Bentonville, AR is on Central Time and Winston-Salem, NC is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Bentonville, it's 1 p.m. in Winston-Salem, which puts Bentonville 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.
Winston-Salem has a population of 249,571, vs 54,513 in Bentonville — about 4.6× larger by population. By land area, Winston-Salem covers about 135 sq mi vs 35 sq mi for Bentonville.
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 | Bentonville | Winston-Salem | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,151/mo | $956/mo | 20.4% higher in Bentonville |
| Median home value | $338,500 | $187,400 | 80.6% higher in Bentonville |
| Median household income | $99,074 | $54,416 | 82.1% higher in Bentonville |
| Groceries index | 94.0 | 96.8 | 2.9% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Utilities index | 76.9 | 89.1 | 15.9% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 98.4 | 2.7% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Healthcare index | 95.3 | 97.9 | 2.8% higher in Winston-Salem |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Bentonville, you'd need $99,977 in Winston-Salem to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Bentonville and Winston-Salem have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 8% higher in Bentonville than in Winston-Salem. If you earn $80,000 in Bentonville, you'd need about $79,981 in Winston-Salem to keep the same standard of living.