Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Lincoln's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Lincoln?
Your $100,000 in Lincoln has the same purchasing power as $113,533 in the average US city. You'd need $13,533 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 Lincoln's cost index of 88, sorted by closest match.
Lincoln has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Your dollar carries more weight here and the labor market runs tight are the headliners, plus 5 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 88, a comfortable 12% 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 $998/mo against a typical household income of $67,846, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
The unemployment rate in Lincoln sits at roughly 3.3%, which is a tight labor market by US standards. Salaries get nudged up faster, openings are easier to find, and switching jobs is less of a leap than it is in a softer market.
With a citywide Walk Score of 63/100, Lincoln sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Bike Score of 67/100 in Lincoln. 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 Lincoln 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 Lincoln 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.
Lincoln has a college-educated share of about 41% 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 Lincoln'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.
Yes — and a lot of it. With winter averages near 17°F, Lincoln sees real accumulation most years. Salt for the steps, tires that handle ice, and a sense of humor about February are the usual costs of admission.
Properly cold. Lincoln's winter sits around 17°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Lincoln'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.
Lincoln falls in roughly USDA Zone 7. The zone classification is based on average annual minimum temperatures, so it's the right lookup for whether perennials and trees will overwinter here. Note that this is approximate from our winter-temperature data — check the USDA map for the exact zone before betting an expensive plant on it.
Roughly 1,234 feet (376 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Middle of the pack. Lincoln comes in around 3,278 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Lincoln is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 88 versus the 100 national baseline — about 12% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 63/100, Lincoln has genuinely walkable neighborhoods alongside more sprawled stretches. Transit Score is 29 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 $61,656 to live in Lincoln 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 Lincoln runs about $998/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.