Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Evansville's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Evansville?
Your $100,000 in Evansville has the same purchasing power as $119,403 in the average US city. You'd need $19,403 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 Evansville's cost index of 84, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Evansville, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and the drive to work is mercifully short lead — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 84, a comfortable 16% 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 $917/mo against a typical household income of $49,853, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Average commute time in Evansville 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.
Reasons are pulled from Evansville'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 a regular feature, not a surprise. With winter temperatures hovering near 26°F, Evansville sees enough snowfall that locals don't think twice about it but also enough mild stretches that nobody owns three pairs of boots.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Evansville averages roughly 26°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. Evansville's summer averages around 85°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 8, give or take a half-zone. Evansville's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 8 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 394 feet (120 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Evansville's altitude shows up in daily life.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Evansville's ~4,525 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.
Evansville is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 84 versus the 100 national baseline — about 16% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Evansville scores 36 out of 100 on Walk Score, which translates to "car-dependent but not aggressively so". Some neighborhoods buck the citywide average; the dense inner cores are usually noticeably more walkable than the city number suggests.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $58,625 to live in Evansville 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 Evansville runs about $917/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.