City comparison
Provo, UT is about 1,500 miles (2,400 km) from Royal Oak, MI in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,800 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 Provo, UT to Royal Oak, MI takes about 2 h 57 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.
Provo, UT is on Mountain Time and Royal Oak, MI is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Provo, it's 1 p.m. in Royal Oak, which puts Provo 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.
Provo has a population of 114,400, vs 58,053 in Royal Oak — about 2.0× larger by population. By land area, Provo covers about 42 sq mi vs 12 sq mi for Royal Oak.
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 | Provo | Royal Oak | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,089/mo | $1,260/mo | 15.7% higher in Royal Oak |
| Median home value | $391,500 | $289,800 | 35.1% higher in Provo |
| Median household income | $57,943 | $92,799 | 60.2% higher in Royal Oak |
| Groceries index | 97.1 | 98.6 | 1.5% higher in Royal Oak |
| Utilities index | 82.8 | 105.6 | 27.5% higher in Royal Oak |
| Transportation index | 99.5 | 102.1 | 2.6% higher in Royal Oak |
| Healthcare index | 99.4 | 102.3 | 2.9% higher in Royal Oak |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Provo, you'd need $100,040 in Royal Oak to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Provo and Royal Oak have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 8% higher in Provo than in Royal Oak. If you earn $80,000 in Provo, you'd need about $80,032 in Royal Oak to keep the same standard of living.