City comparison
Chicago, IL is about 850 miles (1,400 km) from New Bedford, MA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 1,100 miles, or about 18 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 Chicago, IL to New Bedford, MA takes about 1 h 43 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.
Chicago, IL is on Central Time and New Bedford, MA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Chicago, it's 1 p.m. in New Bedford, which puts Chicago 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.
Chicago has a population of 2,721,914, vs 100,620 in New Bedford — about 27.1× larger by population. By land area, Chicago covers about 230 sq mi vs 20 sq mi for New Bedford.
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 | Chicago | New Bedford | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,314/mo | $1,026/mo | 28.1% higher in Chicago |
| Median home value | $304,500 | $291,300 | 4.5% higher in Chicago |
| Median household income | $71,673 | $54,604 | 31.3% higher in Chicago |
| Groceries index | 106.4 | 97.5 | 9.1% higher in Chicago |
| Utilities index | 84.4 | 144.3 | 71.1% higher in New Bedford |
| Transportation index | 100.3 | 101.7 | 1.4% higher in New Bedford |
| Healthcare index | 100.2 | 102.5 | 2.3% higher in New Bedford |
How much you'd need to earn in the other city to keep the same standard of living.
If you earn $100,000 in Chicago, you'd need $100,411 in New Bedford to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Chicago and New Bedford have nearly identical overall cost-of-living indices. Housing costs are roughly 9% higher in Chicago than in New Bedford. If you earn $80,000 in Chicago, you'd need about $80,329 in New Bedford to keep the same standard of living.