Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Sparks's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Sparks?
Your $100,000 in Sparks has the same purchasing power as $92,251 in the average US city. You'd need $7,749 more 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 Sparks's cost index of 108, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Sparks? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly no state income tax and paychecks come in above the us average, plus 3 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
Nevada is one of the handful of US states with no state income tax on wages, so the only income-tax bite on a paycheck in Sparks is federal. For a household earning $100k, that's a tangible four-figure difference every year compared to a comparable salary in California or New York.
The typical household in Sparks pulls in $82,938 — comfortably above the US median. Combined with the cost of living here, the income-to-expense ratio works out better than a quick look at either number in isolation would suggest.
Reported crime in Sparks comes in around 2,442 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 Sparks 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 Sparks 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 Sparks'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. Sparks's winter average of about 27°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. Sparks averages roughly 27°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. Sparks's summer averages around 90°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 Sparks. (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 4,524 feet (1,379 m) above sea level. At that altitude, the first few days for a coastal visitor can feel mildly off — shorter breath on stairs, faster fatigue — but it normalizes quickly.
Middle of the pack. Sparks comes in around 2,442 per 100,000, basically the national average. The interesting question is usually which neighborhood, not which city — that's where the real variation lives.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Sparks's index of 108 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Sparks scores 37 out of 100 on Walk Score, which translates to "car-dependent but not aggressively so". 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 $75,880 to live in Sparks 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 Sparks runs about $1,526/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.