City comparison
Chattanooga, TN is about 700 miles (1,100 km) from Scranton, PA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 850 miles, or about 14 hours behind the wheel at highway speeds.
Driving distance is a rough estimate (great-circle × 1.25); driving time assumes a 60 mph blended average. Real trips run 10–20% longer with stops.
A direct flight from Chattanooga, TN to Scranton, PA takes about 1 h 21 min, covering roughly 700 miles in a straight line. Connecting itineraries with a layover typically add 1–3 hours.
Block-to-block estimate at ~500 mph cruise, including taxi, climb, and descent — what an airline would publish, not pure airborne time.
Chattanooga, TN is on Central Time and Scranton, PA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Chattanooga, it's 1 p.m. in Scranton, which puts Chattanooga 1 hours behind.
Standard-time offsets. Daylight saving applies in both cities for most of the year (exceptions: Hawaii and most of Arizona), and the gap between the two stays the same.
Chattanooga has a population of 181,288, vs 76,119 in Scranton — about 2.4× larger by population. By land area, Chattanooga covers about 140 sq mi vs 25 sq mi for Scranton.
Population from US Census ACS. Land area from the Census Gazetteer (city proper, excluding inland water).
Cost indices by category, with the US city average (100) marked.
Index: 100 = US city average. Lower is more affordable.
Side-by-side costs, salaries, and sub-category indices.
| Metric | Chattanooga | Scranton | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,066/mo | $933/mo | 14.3% higher in Chattanooga |
| Median home value | $230,500 | $125,700 | 83.4% higher in Chattanooga |
| Median household income | $57,703 | $48,776 | 18.3% higher in Chattanooga |
| Groceries index | 96.2 | 100.7 | 4.7% higher in Scranton |
| Utilities index | 76.1 | 105.9 | 39.2% higher in Scranton |
| Transportation index | 95.8 | 97.6 | 1.9% higher in Scranton |
| Healthcare index | 95.3 | 98.3 | 3.2% higher in Scranton |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Chattanooga, you'd need $100,058 in Scranton to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Chattanooga and Scranton have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 14% higher in Chattanooga than in Scranton. If you earn $80,000 in Chattanooga, you'd need about $80,046 in Scranton to keep the same standard of living.