City comparison
Chesterfield, MO is about 850 miles (1,300 km) from Philadelphia, PA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,000 miles, or about 17 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 Chesterfield, MO to Philadelphia, PA takes about 1 h 40 min, covering roughly 850 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.
Chesterfield, MO is on Central Time and Philadelphia, PA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Chesterfield, it's 1 p.m. in Philadelphia, which puts Chesterfield 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.
Philadelphia has a population of 1,593,208, vs 49,645 in Chesterfield — about 32.1× larger by population. By land area, Philadelphia covers about 135 sq mi vs 32 sq mi for Chesterfield.
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 | Chesterfield | Philadelphia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,405/mo | $1,250/mo | 12.4% higher in Chesterfield |
| Median home value | $437,000 | $215,500 | 102.8% higher in Chesterfield |
| Median household income | $137,052 | $57,537 | 138.2% higher in Chesterfield |
| Groceries index | 99.7 | 97.0 | 2.7% higher in Chesterfield |
| Utilities index | 71.9 | 112.3 | 56.3% higher in Philadelphia |
| Transportation index | 98.5 | 101.7 | 3.3% higher in Philadelphia |
| Healthcare index | 98.7 | 102.7 | 4.0% higher in Philadelphia |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Chesterfield, you'd need $119,005 in Philadelphia to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Chesterfield, MO is about 16% cheaper overall than Philadelphia, PA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 37% higher in Philadelphia than in Chesterfield. If you earn $80,000 in Chesterfield, you'd need about $95,204 in Philadelphia to keep the same standard of living.