Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Fort Collins's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Fort Collins?
Your $100,000 in Fort Collins has the same purchasing power as $93,345 in the average US city. You'd need $6,655 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.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Fort Collins's cost index of 107, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Fort Collins? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly paychecks come in above the us average and lower-than-average crime numbers, plus 4 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
The typical household in Fort Collins pulls in $78,977 — comfortably above the US median. Combined with the cost of living here, the income-to-expense ratio works out better than a quick look at either number in isolation would suggest.
Reported crime in Fort Collins comes in around 2,961 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
Bike Score of 89/100 in Fort Collins. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Average AQI in Fort Collins comes in around 37, 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 Fort Collins runs around 20 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.
Fort Collins has a college-educated share of about 58% 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 Fort Collins'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 Fort Collins. Average temperatures around 19°F mean the ground stays covered from December well into March, and a snowblower is less optional than aspirational.
Properly cold. Fort Collins'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. Fort Collins'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.
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 Fort Collins. (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.)
Roughly 5,000 feet (1,524 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.
Middle of the pack. Fort Collins comes in around 2,961 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Fort Collins's index of 107 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 53/100, Fort Collins has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 30 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 $74,991 to live in Fort Collins 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 Fort Collins runs about $1,576/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.