Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Toledo's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Toledo?
Your $100,000 in Toledo has the same purchasing power as $118,483 in the average US city. You'd need $18,483 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 Toledo's cost index of 84, sorted by closest match.
Toledo 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 walkable in a way most us cities aren't are the headliners, plus 2 more things worth knowing. The rest is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 84, a comfortable 16% 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 $854/mo against a typical household income of $45,405, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
With a citywide Walk Score of 56/100, Toledo sits firmly in the walkable-by-US-standards camp. Pick a central neighborhood and most daily errands happen without keys in your hand.
Average AQI in Toledo comes in around 42, 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 Toledo runs around 20 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 Toledo'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 23°F, Toledo 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. Toledo's winter sits around 23°F on average — and that's the average, meaning plenty of nights drop well below zero. People here own gear.
Reliably warm. Toledo's summer averages around 84°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.
Toledo 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 607 feet (185 m). That's modest elevation — comparable to most inland-Midwest and Southern cities.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Toledo's ~4,348 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.
Toledo is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 84 versus the 100 national baseline — about 16% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
In parts, yes. With a citywide Walk Score of 56/100, Toledo 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 $59,080 to live in Toledo 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 Toledo runs about $854/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.