City comparison
Hendersonville, TN is about 550 miles (900 km) from Portsmouth, VA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 700 miles, or about 12 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 Hendersonville, TN to Portsmouth, VA takes about 1 h 8 min, covering roughly 550 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.
Hendersonville, TN is on Central Time and Portsmouth, VA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Hendersonville, it's 1 p.m. in Portsmouth, which puts Hendersonville 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.
Portsmouth has a population of 97,384, vs 61,589 in Hendersonville — about 1.6× larger by population. By land area, Portsmouth covers about 33 sq mi vs 32 sq mi for Hendersonville.
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 | Hendersonville | Portsmouth | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,407/mo | $1,225/mo | 14.9% higher in Hendersonville |
| Median home value | $364,700 | $213,300 | 71.0% higher in Hendersonville |
| Median household income | $86,954 | $57,154 | 52.1% higher in Hendersonville |
| Groceries index | 96.5 | 96.9 | ≈ equal (Portsmouth slightly higher) |
| Utilities index | 74.0 | 90.0 | 21.7% higher in Portsmouth |
| Transportation index | 95.6 | 98.8 | 3.3% higher in Portsmouth |
| Healthcare index | 95.1 | 98.3 | 3.3% higher in Portsmouth |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Hendersonville, you'd need $100,133 in Portsmouth to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Hendersonville and Portsmouth have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 6% higher in Hendersonville than in Portsmouth. If you earn $80,000 in Hendersonville, you'd need about $80,106 in Portsmouth to keep the same standard of living.