Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Portsmouth's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Portsmouth?
Your $100,000 in Portsmouth has the same purchasing power as $102,093 in the average US city. You'd need $2,093 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 Portsmouth's cost index of 98, sorted by closest match.
Portsmouth has a handful of real selling points, and they're not the kind of thing you find in a brochure. Air quality you don't have to think about and short commutes are the local norm are the headliners. The rest is below.
Average AQI in Portsmouth comes in around 36, 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 Portsmouth runs around 23 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 Portsmouth'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.
Portsmouth gets a handful of meaningful snow days each year. Winters average about 34°F — cold enough for several inches at a time, warm enough for everything to melt between storms.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Portsmouth averages roughly 34°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. Portsmouth'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.
Portsmouth falls in roughly USDA Zone 8. 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.
Barely above the water. Portsmouth is at about 13 feet (4 m) elevation, and parts of the city are essentially at sea level. Flood-zone maps are worth checking before buying a house.
Hurricane season covers June through November, with peak activity in late summer and early fall. For Portsmouth, the practical advice is: have a few days of water and supplies on hand from August onward, know your evacuation route, and don't wait for the news to tell you a storm is "probably nothing" — track the cone yourself.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Portsmouth's ~5,778 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.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Portsmouth's index of 98 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Portsmouth's Walk Score is 4/100, firmly in the car-required tier. Transit Score is 0 out of 100. The layout assumes you'll drive to the grocery store, drive to work, drive everywhere.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $68,565 to live in Portsmouth 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 Portsmouth runs about $1,225/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.