City comparison
Port St. Lucie, FL is about 150 miles (225 km) from St. Petersburg, FL in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 175 miles, or about 3 h 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 Port St. Lucie, FL to St. Petersburg, FL takes about 17 min, covering roughly 150 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.
Port St. Lucie, FL is on Eastern Time and St. Petersburg, FL is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Port St. Lucie, it's 11 a.m. in St. Petersburg, which puts Port St. Lucie 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.
St. Petersburg has a population of 259,343, vs 210,520 in Port St. Lucie — about 1.2× larger by population. By land area, Port St. Lucie covers about 120 sq mi vs 62 sq mi for St. Petersburg.
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 | Port St. Lucie | St. Petersburg | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,684/mo | $1,410/mo | 19.4% higher in Port St. Lucie |
| Median home value | $292,900 | $289,000 | 1.3% higher in Port St. Lucie |
| Median household income | $75,040 | $70,333 | 6.7% higher in Port St. Lucie |
| Groceries index | 96.5 | 95.8 | 0.7% higher in Port St. Lucie |
| Utilities index | 87.7 | 89.1 | 1.6% higher in St. Petersburg |
| Transportation index | 99.0 | 97.8 | 1.2% higher in Port St. Lucie |
| Healthcare index | 98.5 | 97.3 | 1.2% higher in Port St. Lucie |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Port St. Lucie, you'd need $103,351 in St. Petersburg to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Port St. Lucie, FL is about 3.2% cheaper overall than St. Petersburg, FL, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 8% higher in St. Petersburg than in Port St. Lucie. If you earn $80,000 in Port St. Lucie, you'd need about $82,681 in St. Petersburg to keep the same standard of living.