Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Casper's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Casper?
Your $100,000 in Casper has the same purchasing power as $114,705 in the average US city. You'd need $14,705 less 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 Casper's cost index of 87, sorted by closest match.
Casper has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Your dollar carries more weight here and wyoming doesn't tax your paycheck are the headliners, plus 5 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 87, a comfortable 13% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $942/mo against a typical household income of $67,011, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Living in Casper means no state income tax on your salary — Wyoming is one of nine states that simply doesn't have one. On a $100k income that's typically thousands of dollars a year that stay in your account instead of going to a state revenue department.
The unemployment rate in Casper sits at roughly 3.3%, which is a tight labor market by US standards. Salaries get nudged up faster, openings are easier to find, and switching jobs is less of a leap than it is in a softer market.
The reported crime rate in Casper runs about 0 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 citywide Walk Score of 68/100, Casper sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average AQI in Casper comes in around 19, 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 Casper runs around 16 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.
Reasons are pulled from Casper'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.
Yes — and a lot of it. With winter averages near 19°F, Casper sees real accumulation most years. Salt for the steps, tires that handle ice, and a sense of humor about February are the usual costs of admission.
Properly cold. Casper's winter sits around 19°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Casper's summer averages around 87°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.
Casper falls in roughly USDA Zone 7. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Roughly 5,154 feet (1,571 m) above sea level. At that altitude, the first few days for a coastal visitor can feel mildly off — shorter breath on stairs, faster fatigue — but it normalizes quickly.
The headline number is reassuring. Casper's reported incident rate of about 0 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.
Casper is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 87 versus the 100 national baseline — about 13% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 68/100, Casper has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $61,026 to live in Casper 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 Casper runs about $942/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.