Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Burlington's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Burlington?
Your $100,000 in Burlington has the same purchasing power as $95,776 in the average US city. You'd need $4,224 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.
Within 10 points of Burlington's cost index of 104, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Burlington? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly the air is clean, not just clean-ish and you'll get your commute time back, plus 1 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Average AQI in Burlington comes in around 32, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Average commute time in Burlington runs around 19 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Burlington has a college-educated share of about 60% 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 Burlington'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 Burlington. Average temperatures around 20°F mean the ground stays covered from December well into March, and a snowblower is less optional than aspirational.
Properly cold. Burlington's winter sits around 20°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Burlington sits about 77°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
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 Burlington. (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.)
Around 108 feet (33 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Burlington's altitude shows up in daily life.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Burlington's ~5,601 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Burlington's index of 104 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Burlington's Walk Score is 13/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 24 out of 100. The layout assumes you'll drive to the grocery store, drive to work, drive everywhere.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $73,087 to live in Burlington 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 Burlington runs about $1,540/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.