Omaha, NE
Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Omaha ranks 45th for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 78th for income. A household earns $84,524 a year while median rent runs $1,230/mo, making it comfortably affordable for what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 8% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is health (24th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (198th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 142nd and home prices 140th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
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 in Omaha, your take-home is worth about $63,473 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
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.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 78th of 300↑20.1%$84,524
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 88th of 30092 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $91,963
- Per-capita income
- $43,842
- Full-time pay
- $48,085
Housing
- Median rent
- 142nd of 300↑29.6%$1,230/mo
- Home value
- 140th of 300↑53.5%$292,800
- Property tax
- $4,633/yr · 1.6%
- Sales tax
- 6.97%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 84th of 3003.7%
- Bachelor's+
- 83rd of 30039.1%
- Avg commute
- 51st of 30021.4 min
People
- Population
- 1,001,186
- Population change
- +5.4%
- Median age
- 36.7 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 9.4%
- Broadband
- 92.9%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 198th of 30050
- Natural-hazard loss
- 167th of 300$14/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 24th of 30015.1%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 9.4%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Affordability
- + Cost of living
- + Household income
- + Job market
- + Education
- + Commute
- + Health
Watch-outs
- —
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — omaha #1.
What jobs pay in Omaha
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $200,860
- IT managers
- $145,500
- Pharmacists
- $141,830
- Financial managers
- $140,390
- Lawyers
- $131,730
- Software developers
- $125,220
- Civil engineers
- $102,020
- General & operations managers
- $90,620
- Web developers
- $87,920
- Registered nurses
- $84,600
- Police officers
- $80,280
- Accountants & auditors
- $77,030
- Secondary school teachers
- $63,900
- Plumbers
- $63,400
- Elementary school teachers
- $62,670
- Electricians
- $62,440
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $58,010
- Carpenters
- $52,800
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $51,700
- Construction laborers
- $48,300
- Customer service reps
- $44,260
- Janitors
- $35,620
- Waiters & waitresses
- $34,290
- Retail salespersons
- $33,260
- Cashiers
- $31,270
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Omaha metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Nebraska are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Texas2,128
- California1,769
- Missouri1,305
- Colorado1,280
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Omaha
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Omaha metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Omaha metro?
- Median gross rent across the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area is $1,230 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Omaha.
- What is the median household income in the Omaha metro?
- A typical household in the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area earns $84,524 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Omaha expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area runs about 8% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Omaha metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $91,963 (versus its face value of $84,524). CityLedger rates the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area comfortably affordable for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Omaha metro?
- The median home value across the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area is $292,800 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Omaha metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Omaha, NE-IA Metro Area is 3.7% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).