City comparison
Dayton, OH is about 450 miles (750 km) from Scranton, PA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 600 miles, or about 9 h 30 min 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 Dayton, OH to Scranton, PA takes about 55 min, covering roughly 450 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.
Dayton, OH is on Central Time and Scranton, PA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Dayton, it's 1 p.m. in Scranton, which puts Dayton 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.
Dayton has a population of 137,305, vs 76,119 in Scranton — about 1.8× larger by population. By land area, Dayton covers about 56 sq mi vs 25 sq mi for Scranton.
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 | Dayton | Scranton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $830/mo | $933/mo | 12.4% higher in Scranton |
| Median home value | $86,200 | $125,700 | 45.8% higher in Scranton |
| Median household income | $41,443 | $48,776 | 17.7% higher in Scranton |
| Groceries index | 93.9 | 100.7 | 7.3% higher in Scranton |
| Utilities index | 95.1 | 105.9 | 11.4% higher in Scranton |
| Transportation index | 98.8 | 97.6 | 1.2% higher in Dayton |
| Healthcare index | 99.0 | 98.3 | 0.6% higher in Dayton |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Dayton, you'd need $99,884 in Scranton to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Dayton and Scranton have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 7% higher in Dayton than in Scranton. If you earn $80,000 in Dayton, you'd need about $79,907 in Scranton to keep the same standard of living.