Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Owensboro's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Owensboro?
Your $100,000 in Owensboro has the same purchasing power as $127,877 in the average US city. You'd need $27,877 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 Owensboro's cost index of 78, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Owensboro? 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.
Owensboro's composite cost-of-living index is 78 — roughly 22% 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 $888/mo against a typical household income of $51,982, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Average commute time in Owensboro runs around 17 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 Owensboro'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. Owensboro's winter average of about 26°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. Owensboro averages roughly 26°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".
Reliably warm. Owensboro's summer averages around 85°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.
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 Owensboro. (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 417 feet (127 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about Owensboro's altitude shows up in daily life.
Middle of the pack. Owensboro comes in around 3,880 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
Owensboro is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 78 versus the 100 national baseline — about 22% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 54/100, Owensboro 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 $54,740 to live in Owensboro 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 Owensboro runs about $888/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.