Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Racine's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Racine?
Your $100,000 in Racine has the same purchasing power as $106,485 in the average US city. You'd need $6,485 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 Racine's cost index of 94, sorted by closest match.
Racine 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 safer than the typical us city are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 94, a comfortable 6% 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 $967/mo against a typical household income of $52,766, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Reported crime in Racine comes in around 1,982 per 100,000 — under the national baseline of about 3,500. Worth digging into specific neighborhoods before settling on one, but the city-level picture is on the safer side.
Average AQI in Racine comes in around 43, 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 Racine 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 Racine'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 20°F, Racine 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. Racine's winter sits around 20°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Warm without being brutal. Summer in Racine sits about 80°F on average. Afternoons can push into the high 80s, but mornings and evenings are usually genuinely pleasant.
Racine 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 663 feet (202 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
The headline number is reassuring. Racine's reported incident rate of about 1,982 per 100,000 is comfortably below the US norm of around 3,500 per 100k. Specific neighborhoods always vary, but the broader picture is on the safer side.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Racine's index of 94 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Racine scores 46 out of 100 on Walk Score, which translates to "car-dependent but not aggressively so". Transit Score is 38 out of 100. Some neighborhoods buck the citywide average; the dense inner cores are usually noticeably more walkable than the city number suggests.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $65,737 to live in Racine 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 Racine runs about $967/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.