Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Oklahoma City's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Oklahoma City?
Your $100,000 in Oklahoma City has the same purchasing power as $118,078 in the average US city. You'd need $18,078 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 Oklahoma City's cost index of 85, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Oklahoma City? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly cheaper than the national average, with no fine print and you can walk to most of what you need, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 85, a comfortable 15% 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 $1,012/mo against a typical household income of $64,251, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
With a citywide Walk Score of 73/100, Oklahoma City sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand. Transit Score comes in at 72/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 74/100 in Oklahoma City. 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 commute time in Oklahoma City runs around 22 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 Oklahoma City'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, several times a winter. Oklahoma City's winter average of about 29°F sits right around freezing, so storms typically drop real snow that lingers a few days before slush sets in.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Oklahoma City averages roughly 29°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".
Properly hot. Oklahoma City'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 8. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 8 or colder should survive a typical winter in Oklahoma City. (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.)
Roughly 1,217 feet (371 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Middle of the pack. Oklahoma City comes in around 3,765 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Oklahoma City is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 85 versus the 100 national baseline — about 15% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Oklahoma City scores 73/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. Transit Score is 72 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 $59,283 to live in Oklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City runs about $1,012/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.