City comparison
Durham, NC is about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) from San Antonio, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,500 miles, or about 25 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 Durham, NC to San Antonio, TX takes about 2 h 27 min, covering roughly 1,200 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.
Durham, NC is on Eastern Time and San Antonio, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Durham, it's 11 a.m. in San Antonio, which puts Durham 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.
San Antonio has a population of 1,445,662, vs 284,094 in Durham — about 5.1× larger by population. By land area, San Antonio covers about 500 sq mi vs 120 sq mi for Durham.
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 | Durham | San Antonio | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,296/mo | $1,189/mo | 9.0% higher in Durham |
| Median home value | $316,600 | $198,000 | 59.9% higher in Durham |
| Median household income | $74,710 | $59,593 | 25.4% higher in Durham |
| Groceries index | 96.8 | 94.2 | 2.8% higher in Durham |
| Utilities index | 89.8 | 83.3 | 7.8% higher in Durham |
| Transportation index | 98.4 | 96.6 | 1.8% higher in Durham |
| Healthcare index | 97.9 | 96.1 | 1.8% higher in Durham |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Durham, you'd need $96,334 in San Antonio to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
San Antonio, TX is about 3.7% cheaper overall than Durham, NC, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 5% higher in Durham than in San Antonio. If you earn $80,000 in Durham, you'd need about $77,067 in San Antonio to keep the same standard of living.