Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Jonesboro's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Jonesboro?
Your $100,000 in Jonesboro has the same purchasing power as $130,634 in the average US city. You'd need $30,634 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 Jonesboro's cost index of 77, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Jonesboro? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly your money goes a lot further here and you'll get your commute time back. The detail on each one is below.
Jonesboro's composite cost-of-living index is 77 — roughly 23% under the US baseline. Housing is doing most of the heavy lifting; groceries, utilities, and services are also cheaper than the national norm, just by smaller margins. Median rent in town runs about $871/mo against a typical household income of $51,124, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Average commute time in Jonesboro runs around 18 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 Jonesboro'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.
Not really a snow town. With winters averaging 35°F, Jonesboro sits in the mild-cold band where snowflakes appear occasionally and everything melts within a day. Most years see one storm worth talking about.
Cool, not cold. Winters in Jonesboro sit around 35°F — sweater-and-jacket weather most days, with the occasional cold front that reminds you it's still winter.
Properly hot. Jonesboro's summer averages around 91°F with daily highs that routinely break 100°F. The trick to summer here is starting the day at sunrise and staying inside through the worst of it.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 9. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 9 or colder should survive a typical winter in Jonesboro. (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.)
Around 276 feet (84 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Jonesboro's altitude shows up in daily life.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Jonesboro's ~4,038 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.
Jonesboro is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 77 versus the 100 national baseline — about 23% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 52/100, Jonesboro has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. If walkability matters to you, the neighborhood choice will matter more than the city-level number.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $53,585 to live in Jonesboro 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 Jonesboro runs about $871/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.