City comparison
Dallas, TX is about 900 miles (1,400 km) from Tempe, AZ in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,100 miles, or about 18 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 Dallas, TX to Tempe, AZ takes about 1 h 45 min, covering roughly 900 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 Tempe, AZ is on Mountain Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Dallas, it's 11 a.m. in Tempe, 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 181,005 in Tempe — about 7.2× larger by population. By land area, Dallas covers about 340 sq mi vs 40 sq mi for Tempe.
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 | Tempe | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,305/mo | $1,472/mo | 12.8% higher in Tempe |
| Median home value | $270,700 | $382,100 | 41.2% higher in Tempe |
| Median household income | $63,985 | $72,022 | 12.6% higher in Tempe |
| Groceries index | 101.7 | 95.8 | 6.1% higher in Dallas |
| Utilities index | 89.3 | 96.2 | 7.8% higher in Tempe |
| Transportation index | 98.5 | 104.1 | 5.6% higher in Tempe |
| Healthcare index | 99.7 | 104.0 | 4.4% higher in Tempe |
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 $102,916 in Tempe to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Dallas, TX is about 2.8% cheaper overall than Tempe, AZ, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 4% higher in Tempe than in Dallas. If you earn $80,000 in Dallas, you'd need about $82,333 in Tempe to keep the same standard of living.