City comparison
Raleigh, NC is about 1,200 miles (2,000 km) from San Antonio, TX in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,500 miles, or about 26 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 Raleigh, NC to San Antonio, TX takes about 2 h 28 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.
Raleigh, NC is on Eastern Time and San Antonio, TX is on Central Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Raleigh, it's 11 a.m. in San Antonio, which puts Raleigh 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.
San Antonio has a population of 1,445,662, vs 465,517 in Raleigh — about 3.1× larger by population. By land area, San Antonio covers about 500 sq mi vs 150 sq mi for Raleigh.
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 | Raleigh | San Antonio | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,371/mo | $1,189/mo | 15.3% higher in Raleigh |
| Median home value | $347,000 | $198,000 | 75.3% higher in Raleigh |
| Median household income | $78,631 | $59,593 | 31.9% higher in Raleigh |
| Groceries index | 96.8 | 94.2 | 2.8% higher in Raleigh |
| Utilities index | 89.5 | 83.3 | 7.4% higher in Raleigh |
| Transportation index | 98.4 | 96.6 | 1.8% higher in Raleigh |
| Healthcare index | 97.9 | 96.1 | 1.8% higher in Raleigh |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Raleigh, you'd need $94,458 in San Antonio to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
San Antonio, TX is about 5.5% cheaper overall than Raleigh, NC, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 10% higher in Raleigh than in San Antonio. If you earn $80,000 in Raleigh, you'd need about $75,566 in San Antonio to keep the same standard of living.