Cost of Living
per year
per month
How St. Louis's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in St. Louis?
Your $100,000 in St. Louis has the same purchasing power as $113,779 in the average US city. You'd need $13,779 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 St. Louis's cost index of 88, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to St. Louis, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and daily errands don't require a car lead, plus 3 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 88, a comfortable 12% 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 $938/mo against a typical household income of $52,941, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
With a citywide Walk Score of 77/100, St. Louis 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 56/100 too, so even the trips that are too far to walk are usually doable on a bus or train.
Bike Score of 79/100 in St. Louis. 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 St. Louis 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.
St. Louis has a college-educated share of about 39% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from St. Louis'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.
St. Louis does winter the real way. Averages around 22°F keep snow on the ground for weeks at a time, and lakes and rivers tend to freeze hard enough to walk on.
Properly cold. St. Louis's winter sits around 22°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. St. Louis's summer averages around 87°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.
Zone 7, give or take a half-zone. St. Louis's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 7 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Around 469 feet (143 m) above sea level — flat enough that nothing about St. Louis's altitude shows up in daily life.
St. Louis's reported crime rate runs high: about 8,874 per 100,000 residents, materially above the national average. Specific neighborhoods vary widely, but the city-wide aggregate is on the rougher end of the US distribution.
St. Louis is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 88 versus the 100 national baseline — about 12% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
St. Louis scores 77/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. Transit Score is 56 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 $61,523 to live in St. Louis 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 St. Louis runs about $938/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.