City comparison
Chicago, IL is about 700 miles (1,200 km) from New York, NY in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 900 miles, or about 15 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 York, NY takes about 1 h 26 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.
Chicago, IL is on Central Time and New York, NY is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Chicago, it's 1 p.m. in New York, 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.
New York has a population of 8,622,467, vs 2,721,914 in Chicago — about 3.2× larger by population. By land area, New York covers about 300 sq mi vs 230 sq mi for Chicago.
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 York | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,314/mo | $1,714/mo | 30.4% higher in New York |
| Median home value | $304,500 | $732,100 | 140.4% higher in New York |
| Median household income | $71,673 | $76,607 | 6.9% higher in New York |
| Groceries index | 106.4 | 109.6 | 3.1% higher in New York |
| Utilities index | 84.4 | 128.8 | 52.7% higher in New York |
| Transportation index | 100.3 | 105.4 | 5.0% higher in New York |
| Healthcare index | 100.2 | 105.3 | 5.1% higher in New York |
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 $120,534 in New York to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Chicago, IL is about 17% cheaper overall than New York, NY, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 32% higher in New York than in Chicago. If you earn $80,000 in Chicago, you'd need about $96,427 in New York to keep the same standard of living.