City comparison
Dayton, OH is about 325 miles (550 km) from Winston-Salem, NC 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 Dayton, OH to Winston-Salem, NC 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.
Dayton, OH is on Central Time and Winston-Salem, NC is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Dayton, it's 1 p.m. in Winston-Salem, 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.
Winston-Salem has a population of 249,571, vs 137,305 in Dayton — about 1.8× larger by population. By land area, Winston-Salem covers about 135 sq mi vs 56 sq mi for Dayton.
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 | Winston-Salem | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $830/mo | $956/mo | 15.2% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Median home value | $86,200 | $187,400 | 117.4% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Median household income | $41,443 | $54,416 | 31.3% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Groceries index | 93.9 | 96.8 | 3.1% higher in Winston-Salem |
| Utilities index | 95.1 | 89.1 | 6.7% higher in Dayton |
| Transportation index | 98.8 | 98.4 | ≈ equal (Dayton slightly higher) |
| Healthcare index | 99.0 | 97.9 | 1.1% 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 $99,907 in Winston-Salem to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Dayton and Winston-Salem have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. If you earn $80,000 in Dayton, you'd need about $79,926 in Winston-Salem to keep the same standard of living.