City comparison
Dallas, TX is about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from San Francisco, CA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,900 miles, or about 32 hours (about 3 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 Dallas, TX to San Francisco, CA takes about 3 h 2 min, covering roughly 1,500 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 San Francisco, CA is on Pacific Time — a 2-hour difference. When it's noon in Dallas, it's 10 a.m. in San Francisco, which puts Dallas 2 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 851,036 in San Francisco — about 1.5× larger by population. By land area, Dallas covers about 340 sq mi vs 47 sq mi for San Francisco.
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 | San Francisco | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,305/mo | $2,316/mo | 77.5% higher in San Francisco |
| Median home value | $270,700 | $1,348,700 | 398.2% higher in San Francisco |
| Median household income | $63,985 | $136,689 | 113.6% higher in San Francisco |
| Groceries index | 101.7 | 103.9 | 2.2% higher in San Francisco |
| Utilities index | 89.3 | 162.7 | 82.2% higher in San Francisco |
| Transportation index | 98.5 | 102.0 | 3.6% higher in San Francisco |
| Healthcare index | 99.7 | 100.2 | ≈ equal (San Francisco slightly higher) |
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 $138,118 in San Francisco to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Dallas, TX is about 27.6% cheaper overall than San Francisco, CA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 66% higher in San Francisco than in Dallas. If you earn $80,000 in Dallas, you'd need about $110,495 in San Francisco to keep the same standard of living.