Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Twin Falls's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Twin Falls?
Your $100,000 in Twin Falls has the same purchasing power as $117,123 in the average US city. You'd need $17,123 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 Twin Falls's cost index of 85, sorted by closest match.
These are the reasons people actually move to Twin Falls, ordered roughly by what shows up loudest in the data. Living costs come in under the US baseline and low unemployment, plenty of openings lead, plus 5 more things worth knowing — the rest unpacked below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 85, a comfortable 15% 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 $952/mo against a typical household income of $58,024, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
At about 3.1% unemployment, Twin Falls's labor market is running on the tight side. Easier to land a role, easier to negotiate, easier to leave one job for a better one — the practical things that matter when you're actually looking.
Reported crime in Twin Falls comes in around 1,943 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.
With a Walk Score of 84/100, Twin Falls is in the category where car ownership becomes a real choice rather than the default. Errands work on foot, the city's built dense enough that things are actually close together, and the parking-and-gas budget can quietly disappear.
Bike Score of 60/100 in Twin Falls. 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 AQI in Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls runs around 17 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 Twin Falls'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.
Snow is a regular feature, not a surprise. With winter temperatures hovering near 27°F, Twin Falls sees enough snowfall that locals don't think twice about it but also enough mild stretches that nobody owns three pairs of boots.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Twin Falls 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".
Reliably warm. Twin Falls's summer averages around 88°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 8, give or take a half-zone. Twin Falls's typical winter low puts it in that band on the USDA Hardiness map, which is what nurseries label plants against. Use Zone 8 as your starting filter; the USDA's interactive map is more precise for borderline cases.
Roughly 3,730 feet (1,137 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.
The headline number is reassuring. Twin Falls's reported incident rate of about 1,943 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.
Twin Falls is a genuinely affordable city by US standards. The composite index sits at 85 versus the 100 national baseline — about 15% cheaper overall, with housing doing most of the heavy lifting.
Twin Falls scores 84/100 on Walk Score, putting it in the "very walkable" tier. 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 $59,766 to live in Twin Falls 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 Twin Falls runs about $952/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.