City comparison
Houston, TX is about 800 miles (1,300 km) from Jacksonville, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,000 miles, or about 17 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 Houston, TX to Jacksonville, FL takes about 1 h 39 min, covering roughly 800 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.
Houston, TX is on Central Time and Jacksonville, FL is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in Jacksonville, which puts Houston 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 950,203 in Jacksonville — about 2.4× larger by population. By land area, Jacksonville covers about 745 sq mi vs 640 sq mi for Houston.
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 | Houston | Jacksonville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $1,281/mo | 3.7% higher in Jacksonville |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $243,000 | 3.4% higher in Jacksonville |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $64,138 | 6.1% higher in Jacksonville |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 96.5 | 4.1% higher in Houston |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 88.2 | 9.2% higher in Houston |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 99.0 | 3.4% higher in Jacksonville |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 98.5 | 3.5% higher in Jacksonville |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Houston, you'd need $101,831 in Jacksonville to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 1.8% cheaper overall than Jacksonville, FL, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 5% higher in Jacksonville than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $81,465 in Jacksonville to keep the same standard of living.