Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Minot's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Minot?
Your $100,000 in Minot has the same purchasing power as $126,247 in the average US city. You'd need $26,247 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 Minot's cost index of 79, sorted by closest match.
People moving to Minot usually have at least one specific reason. Most of them line up with what the data shows: a genuinely affordable place to land, a higher-income labor market than the national norm, plus 4 more things worth knowing. Here's what's actually on the table.
Cost of living lands at 79 on the composite index — about 21% under the US average. That's the kind of gap that shows up in the savings rate, not just the rent check. Median rent in town runs about $937/mo against a typical household income of $75,545, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Median household income in Minot is $75,545, a step above the national median of about $75k. The local job market leans toward industries that pay better than average, and that shows up in the take-home for most working households here.
At about 3.7% unemployment, Minot's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
Minot reports roughly 1,392 crime incidents per 100,000 residents, well under the US average of about 3,500 per 100k. As always, citywide numbers paper over real differences between neighborhoods — but the broader trend here is on the calmer end of the US distribution.
Minot's air quality index averages about 30 — comfortably in the EPA's "good" range. No daily ritual of checking the AQI before going for a run, no smoky-day plans, no surprise asthma flare-ups for the kids. The kind of background condition you notice mostly by its absence.
The average one-way commute in Minot is about 19 minutes — short by US standards (the national average is closer to 27). Over a year of working days, that's hundreds of hours that don't get spent in traffic, which is the kind of thing you notice in the weekend rather than the weekday.
Reasons are pulled from Minot'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.
Minot sits at about 1,555 feet (474 m) — meaningfully higher than coastal cities, but not high enough to noticeably affect breathing or cooking.
By the numbers, yes. Minot reports roughly 1,392 crime incidents per 100,000 residents — well under the US average of about 3,500 per 100k. The big caveat applies as always: every city has neighborhoods that look nothing like the citywide average. But the citywide average here is genuinely good.
No — your dollar actually goes further here. Minot's composite cost-of-living index is 79, roughly 21% under the US average. Housing is usually the biggest driver of the discount.
Not really — Minot is built around the car. Its Walk Score of 5 out of 100 means almost every errand is a drive. Living without a car is technically possible but real work; most residents wouldn't try it.
Roughly $55,447 a year would match the lifestyle of someone earning $70,000 in an average US city. That's a starting point, not a target — negotiate higher when you can. Median rent in Minot runs about $937/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.