Las Vegas vs Portland
Metro-area medians — Las Vegas-Henderson-North Las Vegas, NV Metro Area vs Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Portland comes out ahead, winning 6 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Las Vegas is about 5% cheaper to live in, while Portland households earn about 24% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Portland.
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, Las Vegas leaves you about $8,721/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 Las Vegas for
- + Cost of living (price level, US = 100)
- + Median home value
Choose Portland for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Las Vegas vs Portland — frequently asked
- Is Las Vegas cheaper than Portland?
- Las Vegas is cheaper: its overall cost of living runs about 5% below Portland's (BEA Regional Price Parities).
- Which has higher household income, Las Vegas or Portland?
- Portland has the higher median household income — $98,994 versus $80,028 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 24% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Las Vegas or Portland?
- A paycheck stretches further in Portland. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $93,903 there versus $79,856 in Las Vegas.
- Which has cheaper rent, Las Vegas or Portland?
- Rents are close — $1,739/mo in the Las Vegas metro versus $1,767/mo in Portland (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).