City comparison
Colorado Springs, CO is about 800 miles (1,300 km) from Houston, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,000 miles, or about 17 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 Colorado Springs, CO to Houston, TX takes about 1 h 39 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.
Colorado Springs, CO is on Mountain Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Colorado Springs, it's 1 p.m. in Houston, which puts Colorado Springs 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.
Houston has a population of 2,296,253, vs 479,612 in Colorado Springs — about 4.8× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 200 sq mi for Colorado Springs.
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 | Colorado Springs | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,464/mo | $1,235/mo | 18.5% higher in Colorado Springs |
| Median home value | $383,000 | $235,000 | 63.0% higher in Colorado Springs |
| Median household income | $79,026 | $60,440 | 30.8% higher in Colorado Springs |
| Groceries index | 96.8 | 100.4 | 3.7% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 87.0 | 96.3 | 10.7% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 100.3 | 95.8 | 4.7% higher in Colorado Springs |
| Healthcare index | 100.2 | 95.2 | 5.3% higher in Colorado Springs |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Colorado Springs, you'd need $95,010 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 5% cheaper overall than Colorado Springs, CO, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 12% higher in Colorado Springs than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Colorado Springs, you'd need about $76,008 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.