Cost of Living in Colorado Springs, CO

Population & Growth of Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado Springs is home to roughly 493,554 people as of 2024, making it the second most populous city in Colorado. Growth has been steady rather than explosive, at about 0.5% a year over the past five years, but it's enough to keep demand for space high.

Many residents turn to storage to free up room at home. A 5x10 unit costs about $53 per month on average in Colorado Springs. If you're planning a move in the area, Extra Space Storage has facilities across Broadmoor, East Colorado Springs, Northeast Colorado Springs, and more. Find a storage unit in Colorado Springs today!

Cost of Living in Colorado Springs, CO by Household Size

A single adult in Colorado needs about $41,509 per year to cover essentials. A family of four should budget closer to $114,429 annually for the same categories at household scale—roughly 175% more than a single person needs, driven mainly by larger housing costs.

What Salary Do You Need to Live in Colorado Springs, CO

Based on U.S. median household income adjusted for Colorado Springs' cost of living in 2026, you'd need to earn around $81,359 per year to match the standard of living of a typical American household. That's just 0.3% below the national figure of $81,604. For essentials only, MIT's Living Wage Calculator puts the floor at $41,509 after taxes for a single adult covering housing, groceries, transportation, healthcare, and other basic costs.

• Is $45,000 a good salary in Colorado Springs? $45,000 is about 44.7% below the adjusted benchmark and close to MIT's essentials-only floor. You can cover the basics, but expect a tight budget with little room to save.

• Is $90,000 enough? For a single adult, $90,000 comfortably covers typical Colorado Springs costs. It's about 10.6% above the benchmark, which makes saving more realistic.

For context, the minimum wage in Colorado Springs is $15.16 per hour, the same as the state minimum, and both are well above the federal minimum of $7.25. The median household income in Colorado Springs is $83,672, slightly above the cost-of-living benchmark.

Taxes in Colorado Springs, CO

Colorado charges a flat 4.4% state income tax, and Colorado Springs doesn't add a local income tax on top of it. That can make a $45,000 salary go further here than in a state like Oregon, where income tax rates run as high as 9.9%. Oregon has no sales tax, though, so the savings depend on how much you spend. The combined sales tax rate in Colorado Springs is 8.2%.

How Does Colorado Springs, CO Compare to the Rest of Colorado?

As of 2026, Colorado Springs’ cost of living is 4.5% lower than the Colorado state average—a bigger gap than the 0.3% difference from the national average, showing how comparable Colorado Springs is relative to the rest of the state.

Cost of Living in Colorado Springs, CO Changes Over Time

Cost of living in Colorado Springs has fallen relative to the rest of the country over the past five years. However, prices have still risen in absolute terms. Median rent increased about 8.7% between 2021 and 2026, and median home sale prices climbed about 16.8%. Nationwide inflation also pushed up the cost of groceries, utilities, and healthcare. Because the index measures Colorado Springs against the national average, the city got relatively cheaper as costs elsewhere rose faster.

Compare Colorado Springs Cost of Living to Other Nearby Cities

How does Colorado Springs compare to other cities nearby? Denver's cost of living is 9.8% higher than Colorado Springs', with the biggest gap in housing. See the full city-by-city comparisons below.

• Cost of Living in Pueblo, CO—8.2% lower than Colorado Springs

• Cost of Living in Denver, CO—9.8% higher than Colorado Springs

• Cost of Living in Westminster, CO—2.3% higher than Colorado Springs

• Cost of Living in Gunnison, CO—3.2% higher than Colorado Springs

• Cost of Living Index—C2ER: Our cost of living calculator is powered by data from the Council for Community and Economic Research (C2ER), a trusted nonprofit organization that collects and compares prices across hundreds of U.S. cities. The C2ER Cost of Living Index measures everyday expenses like housing, groceries, transportation, utilities, healthcare, and other common goods and services, so you can see how costs stack up in different places. Each city's score is benchmarked against a national average of 100, which makes comparisons easy. For example, a score of 110 would indicate costs about 10% higher than the national average. We update our calculator twice a year to reflect the latest C2ER data. While these numbers represent citywide averages, it's important to keep in mind that your actual expenses may vary depending on your lifestyle and the neighborhood you choose. The category comparisons and dynamic figures throughout this page pull directly and automatically from this C2ER dataset via our CMS integration, so they stay current without manual updates each refresh cycle.

• Salary Benchmarks—Census/ACS and MIT Living Wage Calculator This page uses two distinct salary benchmarks, kept separate because they answer different questions. The "salary needed to live" figure is a cost-of-living-adjusted equivalence: U.S. median household income (Census/ACS) multiplied by the city's overall C2ER index, divided by 100—representing what a typical American household would need to earn locally to match the purchasing power they'd have nationally. The essentials-only figure referenced alongside it, and reused in the household-size breakdown, comes from MIT's Living Wage Calculator, using the after-tax, single-adult, no-children estimate as the baseline. The family-of-four figure in the household-size section uses MIT's "2 adults, both working, 2 children" scenario for consistency across cities. These figures are checked and refreshed manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Taxes—State and Local Tax Authority Sites: State income tax status, combined sales tax rate, and local income tax rate (where applicable) are researched and verified manually against each state's Department of Revenue or equivalent tax authority site as part of each city page's update.

• Cost of Living Over Time—Historical C2ER Data: Year-over-year cost-of-living trend figures are calculated in-house by comparing the city's current C2ER Cost of Living Index score against its own past C2ER reports, checked and calculated manually as part of each city page's content update.

• Population and Income Context—Census/ACS: Population figures, growth rates, and median household income come from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey, checked manually at each refresh.

• Neighborhood-Level Pricing—AreaVibes: Where a page identifies a specific cheaper neighborhood or suburb, median rent and home price comparisons are sourced from AreaVibes listing data, checked manually at each refresh. 

• Update Cadence: C2ER data refreshes automatically twice a year via our CMS integration. All other figures on this page—salary benchmarks, tax rates, CPI trends, Census data, and neighborhood pricing—are manually reviewed and updated as part of each city page's content refresh cycle.