Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Arlington Heights's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Arlington Heights?
Your $100,000 in Arlington Heights has the same purchasing power as $94,778 in the average US city. You'd need $5,222 more here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Arlington Heights's cost index of 106, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Arlington Heights? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly paychecks here run high and jobs are easy to find right now, plus 4 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Arlington Heights's typical household earns $113,502, which puts it in the top tier of US cities for household income. The bottom of the wage distribution isn't necessarily different from anywhere else, but the median and above sit meaningfully higher.
Unemployment in Arlington Heights is running about 3.5% — below the typical US baseline of around 4%. That usually translates to a job market where employers compete for workers more than the other way around, which is the better side of that equation to be on if you're the one moving.
The reported crime rate in Arlington Heights runs about 1,165 per 100,000 residents — meaningfully below the national norm. People who care about safety as a baseline rather than a feature tend to land in cities with numbers like these.
With a Walk Score of 88/100, Arlington Heights is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear.
Bike Score of 71/100 in Arlington Heights. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Arlington Heights has a college-educated share of about 59% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Arlington Heights's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Snow is just part of the winter in Arlington Heights. Average temperatures around 22°F mean the ground stays covered from December well into March, and a snowblower is less optional than aspirational.
Properly cold. Arlington Heights's winter sits around 22°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Arlington Heights's summer averages around 82°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 7. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 7 or colder should survive a typical winter in Arlington Heights. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Roughly 719 feet (219 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
The headline number is reassuring. Arlington Heights's reported incident rate of about 1,165 per 100,000 is comfortably below the US norm of around 3,500 per 100k. Specific neighborhoods always vary, but the broader picture is on the safer side.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Arlington Heights's index of 106 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Arlington Heights scores 88/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. It's the kind of city where you don't think of going to the grocery store as "going" to the grocery store.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $73,857 to live in Arlington Heights the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Arlington Heights runs about $1,660/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.