City comparison
Boulder, CO is about 1,000 miles (1,600 km) from Lakewood, WA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,200 miles, or about 21 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 Boulder, CO to Lakewood, WA takes about 1 h 59 min, covering roughly 1,000 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.
Boulder, CO is on Mountain Time and Lakewood, WA is on Pacific Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Boulder, it's 11 a.m. in Lakewood, which puts Boulder 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.
Boulder has a population of 106,598, vs 63,142 in Lakewood — about 1.7× larger by population. By land area, Boulder covers about 27 sq mi vs 17 sq mi for Lakewood.
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 | Boulder | Lakewood | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,853/mo | $1,318/mo | 40.6% higher in Boulder |
| Median home value | $919,700 | $406,500 | 126.2% higher in Boulder |
| Median household income | $80,243 | $65,531 | 22.5% higher in Boulder |
| Groceries index | 96.8 | 104.0 | 7.5% higher in Lakewood |
| Utilities index | 86.5 | 95.7 | 10.6% higher in Lakewood |
| Transportation index | 100.3 | 106.6 | 6.4% higher in Lakewood |
| Healthcare index | 100.2 | 106.6 | 6.4% higher in Lakewood |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Boulder, you'd need $100,221 in Lakewood to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Boulder and Lakewood have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 6% higher in Boulder than in Lakewood. If you earn $80,000 in Boulder, you'd need about $80,177 in Lakewood to keep the same standard of living.