Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Durham's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Durham?
Your $100,000 in Durham has the same purchasing power as $102,396 in the average US city. You'd need $2,396 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 Durham's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
Durham has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Walkable in a way most US cities aren't and air quality you don't have to think about are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
With a citywide Walk Score of 61/100, Durham 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 Durham comes in around 38, 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 Durham 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.
Durham has a college-educated share of about 54% 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 Durham'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.
Durham gets a handful of meaningful snow days each year. Winters average about 33°F — cold enough for several inches at a time, warm enough for everything to melt between storms.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Durham averages roughly 33°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Reliably warm. Durham's summer averages around 89°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.
Durham falls in roughly USDA Zone 8. 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.
Around 371 feet (113 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Durham's altitude shows up in daily life.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Durham, the practical advice is: have a few days of water and supplies on hand from August onward, know your evacuation route, and don't wait for the news to tell you a storm is "probably nothing" — track the cone yourself.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Durham's ~4,032 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. Durham's index of 98 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 61/100, Durham has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 43 out of 100. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $68,362 to live in Durham 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 Durham runs about $1,296/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.