Tampa, FL
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Tampa ranks 181st for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 128th for income. A household earns $78,275 a year while median rent runs $1,776/mo, making it expensive relative to what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 1% above the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is education (113th of 300), while commute is the soft spot (269th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 264th and home prices 208th 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 Tampa, your take-home is worth about $60,773 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it less 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
- 128th of 300↑35.2%$78,275
- 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.
- 239th of 300101 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $77,584
- Per-capita income
- $44,932
- Full-time pay
- $46,441
Housing
- Median rent
- 264th of 300↑53.1%$1,776/mo
- Home value
- 208th of 300↑72.7%$387,400
- Property tax
- $2,876/yr · 0.7%
- Sales tax
- 6.95%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 138th of 3004.3%
- Bachelor's+
- 113th of 30036.5%
- Avg commute
- 269th of 30029.4 min
People
- Population
- 3,424,560
- Population change
- +7.2%
- Median age
- 42.2 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 16.2%
- Broadband
- 94.4%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 234th of 30051
- Natural-hazard loss
- 196th of 300$15/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 139th of 30018.2%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 14.8%
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
- —
Watch-outs
- – Cost of living
- – Rent
- – Home prices
- – Commute
- – Air quality
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — tampa intl ap.
What jobs pay in Tampa
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $233,210
- IT managers
- $168,470
- Financial managers
- $157,480
- Pharmacists
- $137,990
- Software developers
- $130,450
- Lawyers
- $127,490
- General & operations managers
- $103,670
- Civil engineers
- $100,570
- Registered nurses
- $85,470
- Accountants & auditors
- $78,990
- Web developers
- $78,910
- Police officers
- $75,710
- Secondary school teachers
- $61,030
- Elementary school teachers
- $60,120
- Electricians
- $57,450
- Carpenters
- $52,130
- Plumbers
- $52,000
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $50,560
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $46,020
- Construction laborers
- $43,750
- Customer service reps
- $42,660
- Waiters & waitresses
- $37,070
- Janitors
- $34,800
- Retail salespersons
- $33,790
- Cashiers
- $30,290
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 Tampa metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Florida are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- New York11,113
- Pennsylvania6,395
- Georgia6,080
- New Jersey6,047
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Tampa
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Tampa metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Tampa metro?
- Median gross rent across the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area is $1,776 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Tampa.
- What is the median household income in the Tampa metro?
- A typical household in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area earns $78,275 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Tampa expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area runs about 1% above the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are higher than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Tampa metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $77,584 (versus its face value of $78,275). CityLedger rates the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area expensive for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Tampa metro?
- The median home value across the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area is $387,400 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Tampa metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL Metro Area is 4.3% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).