City comparison
Houston, TX is about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) from Rockville, MD 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 Houston, TX to Rockville, MD takes about 2 h 26 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.
Houston, TX is on Central Time and Rockville, MD is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Houston, it's 1 p.m. in Rockville, 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 67,142 in Rockville — about 34.2× larger by population. By land area, Houston covers about 640 sq mi vs 14 sq mi for Rockville.
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 | Rockville | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,235/mo | $2,167/mo | 75.5% higher in Rockville |
| Median home value | $235,000 | $623,800 | 165.4% higher in Rockville |
| Median household income | $60,440 | $122,470 | 102.6% higher in Rockville |
| Groceries index | 100.4 | 104.3 | 3.9% higher in Rockville |
| Utilities index | 96.3 | 105.6 | 9.7% higher in Rockville |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 102.2 | 6.7% higher in Rockville |
| Healthcare index | 95.2 | 101.6 | 6.8% higher in Rockville |
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 $124,302 in Rockville to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Houston, TX is about 19.6% cheaper overall than Rockville, MD, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 47% higher in Rockville than in Houston. If you earn $80,000 in Houston, you'd need about $99,442 in Rockville to keep the same standard of living.