Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Chesterfield's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Chesterfield?
Your $100,000 in Chesterfield has the same purchasing power as $111,995 in the average US city. You'd need $11,995 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 Chesterfield's cost index of 89, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Chesterfield, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and above-average earnings, not just for a few people lead, plus 4 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 89, a comfortable 11% 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 $1,405/mo against a typical household income of $137,052, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Chesterfield's typical household earns $137,052, 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.
At about 3.1% unemployment, Chesterfield's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
The reported crime rate in Chesterfield runs about 1,598 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.
Average commute time in Chesterfield runs around 22 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.
Chesterfield has a college-educated share of about 72% 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 Chesterfield'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.
Chesterfield does winter the real way. Averages around 22°F keep snow on the ground for weeks at a time, and lakes and rivers tend to freeze hard enough to walk on.
Properly cold. Chesterfield'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. Chesterfield'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.
Zone 7, give or take a half-zone. Chesterfield's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 7 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Roughly 512 feet (156 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
The headline number is reassuring. Chesterfield's reported incident rate of about 1,598 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.
Chesterfield is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 89 versus the 100 national baseline — about 11% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Chesterfield's Walk Score is 10/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 25 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 $62,503 to live in Chesterfield 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 Chesterfield runs about $1,405/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.