City comparison
College Station, TX is about 600 miles (950 km) from El Paso, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 750 miles, or about 13 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 College Station, TX to El Paso, TX takes about 1 h 13 min, covering roughly 600 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.
College Station, TX is on Central Time and El Paso, TX is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in College Station, it's 11 a.m. in El Paso, which puts College Station 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.
El Paso has a population of 677,181, vs 120,451 in College Station — about 5.6× larger by population. By land area, El Paso covers about 260 sq mi vs 51 sq mi for College Station.
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 | College Station | El Paso | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,129/mo | $976/mo | 15.7% higher in College Station |
| Median home value | $305,800 | $159,300 | 92.0% higher in College Station |
| Median household income | $52,397 | $55,710 | 6.3% higher in El Paso |
| Groceries index | 94.2 | 94.2 | ≈ equal |
| Utilities index | 85.3 | 83.7 | 2.0% higher in College Station |
| Transportation index | 96.6 | 96.6 | ≈ equal |
| Healthcare index | 96.1 | 96.1 | ≈ equal |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in College Station, you'd need $97,597 in El Paso to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
El Paso, TX is about 2.4% cheaper overall than College Station, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 6% higher in College Station than in El Paso. If you earn $80,000 in College Station, you'd need about $78,078 in El Paso to keep the same standard of living.