Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Jacksonville's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Jacksonville?
Your $100,000 in Jacksonville has the same purchasing power as $115,181 in the average US city. You'd need $15,181 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 Jacksonville's cost index of 87, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Jacksonville, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and on the calmer side of the national distribution lead, plus 2 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 87, a comfortable 13% 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 $1,181/mo against a typical household income of $50,185, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Reported crime in Jacksonville comes in around 2,405 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.
Average AQI in Jacksonville comes in around 34, 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 Jacksonville runs around 15 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 Jacksonville'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.
Around 23 feet (7 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Jacksonville's altitude shows up in daily life.
Atlantic basin storms can form from June 1 to November 30, but the serious ones cluster in August, September, and the first half of October. Residents of Jacksonville learn the season's rhythm fast: watch the cone, board up when it's the call, and don't shrug off the slow-mover storms — those are usually the ones that flood.
Middle of the pack. Jacksonville comes in around 2,405 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Jacksonville is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 87 versus the 100 national baseline — about 13% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Jacksonville's Walk Score is 1/100, firmly in the car-required tier. The layout assumes you'll drive to the grocery store, drive to work, drive everywhere.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $60,774 to live in Jacksonville 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 Jacksonville runs about $1,181/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.