Columbus vs Las Vegas
Metro-area medians — Columbus, OH Metro Area vs Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Columbus comes out ahead, winning 10 of the 10 clearly-decided measures.
Columbus is both cheaper to live in (about 5% less) and higher-earning (about 4% more) than Las Vegas. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Columbus.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Columbus leaves you about $1,631/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Columbus for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Columbus vs Las Vegas — frequently asked
- Is Columbus cheaper than Las Vegas?
- Columbus is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 5% below Las Vegas's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Columbus or Las Vegas?
- Columbus has the higher median household income — $82,938 versus $80,028 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 4% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Columbus or Las Vegas?
- A paycheck stretches further in Columbus. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $86,874 there versus $79,856 in Las Vegas.
- Which has cheaper rent, Columbus or Las Vegas?
- Columbus has cheaper rent — a median of $1,359/mo versus $1,739/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).