City comparison
Dallas, TX is about 325 miles (550 km) from Odessa, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 425 miles, or about 7 h 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 Dallas, TX to Odessa, TX takes about 40 min, covering roughly 325 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.
Dallas, TX is on Central Time and Odessa, TX is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Dallas, it's 11 a.m. in Odessa, which puts Dallas 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.
Dallas has a population of 1,300,642, vs 113,353 in Odessa — about 11.5× larger by population. By land area, Dallas covers about 340 sq mi vs 52 sq mi for Odessa.
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 | Dallas | Odessa | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,305/mo | $1,282/mo | 1.8% higher in Dallas |
| Median home value | $270,700 | $193,500 | 39.9% higher in Dallas |
| Median household income | $63,985 | $71,293 | 11.4% higher in Odessa |
| Groceries index | 101.7 | 94.2 | 8.0% higher in Dallas |
| Utilities index | 89.3 | 83.9 | 6.4% higher in Dallas |
| Transportation index | 98.5 | 96.6 | 2.0% higher in Dallas |
| Healthcare index | 99.7 | 96.1 | 3.7% higher in Dallas |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Dallas, you'd need $87,335 in Odessa to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Odessa, TX is about 12.7% cheaper overall than Dallas, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 28% higher in Dallas than in Odessa. If you earn $80,000 in Dallas, you'd need about $69,868 in Odessa to keep the same standard of living.