Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Harrisburg's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Harrisburg?
Your $100,000 in Harrisburg has the same purchasing power as $102,386 in the average US city. You'd need $2,386 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 Harrisburg's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Harrisburg, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Where the city quietly wins: housing costs and among the safer us cities of its size lead, plus 2 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
Median rent is about $944/mo, and the housing sub-index lands at 94 (US avg = 100) in Harrisburg. That's the line item people from coastal metros usually find hardest to believe — and the one that frees up budget for everything else.
The reported crime rate in Harrisburg runs about 1,572 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 72/100, Harrisburg sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average commute time in Harrisburg 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.
Reasons are pulled from Harrisburg'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 27°F, Harrisburg 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. Harrisburg averages roughly 27°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. Harrisburg'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 8, give or take a half-zone. Harrisburg'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 338 feet (103 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Harrisburg's altitude shows up in daily life.
The headline number is reassuring. Harrisburg's reported incident rate of about 1,572 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.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Harrisburg'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.
Harrisburg scores 72/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. Transit Score is 43 out of 100. It's the kind of city where you don't think of going to the grocery store as "going" to the grocery store.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $68,369 to live in Harrisburg 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 Harrisburg runs about $944/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.