City comparison
Gary, IN is about 650 miles (1,000 km) from Philadelphia, PA in a straight line. By road, the drive is roughly 800 miles, or about 13 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 Gary, IN to Philadelphia, PA takes about 1 h 18 min, covering roughly 650 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.
Gary, IN is on Central Time and Philadelphia, PA is on Eastern Time — a 1-hour difference. When it's noon in Gary, it's 1 p.m. in Philadelphia, which puts Gary 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 69,136 in Gary — about 23.0× larger by population. By land area, Philadelphia covers about 135 sq mi vs 50 sq mi for Gary.
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 | Gary | Philadelphia | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $929/mo | $1,250/mo | 34.6% higher in Philadelphia |
| Median home value | $81,800 | $215,500 | 163.4% higher in Philadelphia |
| Median household income | $36,874 | $57,537 | 56.0% higher in Philadelphia |
| Groceries index | 106.3 | 97.0 | 9.5% higher in Gary |
| Utilities index | 84.3 | 112.3 | 33.2% higher in Philadelphia |
| Transportation index | 100.2 | 101.7 | 1.6% higher in Philadelphia |
| Healthcare index | 100.4 | 102.7 | 2.3% 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 Gary, you'd need $102,846 in Philadelphia to maintain your standard of living.
Climate, safety, and demographics side by side.
Gary, IN is about 2.8% cheaper overall than Philadelphia, PA, based on our cost-of-living index. Housing costs are roughly 3% higher in Philadelphia than in Gary. If you earn $80,000 in Gary, you'd need about $82,276 in Philadelphia to keep the same standard of living.