City comparison
Great Falls, MT is about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from Houston, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,900 miles, or about 31 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 Great Falls, MT to Houston, TX takes about 2 h 59 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.
Great Falls, MT is on Mountain Time and Houston, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Great Falls, it's 1 p.m. in Houston, which puts Great Falls 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.
Houston has a population of 2,296,253, vs 60,373 in Great Falls — about 38.0× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 23 sq mi for Great Falls.
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 | Great Falls | Houston | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $828/mo | $1,235/mo | 49.2% higher in Houston |
| Median home value | $223,700 | $235,000 | 5.1% higher in Houston |
| Median household income | $58,272 | $60,440 | 3.7% higher in Houston |
| Groceries index | 96.7 | 100.4 | 3.8% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 77.7 | 96.3 | 23.9% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 99.3 | 95.8 | 3.7% higher in Great Falls |
| Healthcare index | 99.2 | 95.2 | 4.2% higher in Great Falls |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Great Falls, you'd need $105,455 in Houston to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Great Falls, MT is about 5.2% cheaper overall than Houston, TX, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 10% higher in Houston than in Great Falls. If you earn $80,000 in Great Falls, you'd need about $84,364 in Houston to keep the same standard of living.