Cost of Living inChicago, IL, United States
Image credit: Diego Delso
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). United States: $75,489/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 25% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
6.7 / 10
#22 globally
GDP per Capita
City Population
Monthly Costs
Rent
Food
Transport
Utilities
Education
Child Education
Public-school quality + expat access, alongside international and private school cost — the two paths a relocating family weighs.
Public schools
Public-schooling rules are set nationally for United States; Chicago, IL-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Mixed public-school option
Expat access
Available to residents
conditionalInstruction
English
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
The United States has many excellent public schools, but quality varies sharply by district and neighborhood.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident families can use local public schools, but school quality depends heavily on district assignment and housing location.
🗺️ Homeschooling
Varies by stateHomeschooling is legal in all 50 US states but regulations vary dramatically. Some states (TX, AK, ID) have minimal oversight; others (NY, PA, MA) require notification, testing, and curriculum approval. Most worldschooling families establish residency in low-regulation states.
Homeschool legality in United States — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
International & private schools
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current nanny and household-help pricing snapshot for Chicago, IL, United States.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$2,600-$3,400
monthly · confidence 0.65
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$3,100-$4,200
monthly · confidence 0.65
Source: curated family relocation research
Getting Around
The concrete mobility picture for Chicago: airport access, urban transit, and rideshare practicality.
Airport
Major global air hub
O’Hare and Midway give Chicago one of the deepest domestic air networks in the US plus broad international coverage.
Urban transit
L rail, commuter rail, and bus
CTA rail and bus, together with Metra, make many practical Chicago neighborhoods realistic without a car.
Rideshare
Uber and Lyft available
Ride-hailing is a standard fallback for airport runs and trips beyond the strongest rail corridors.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in United States.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
StrongHigh national coverage, strong doctor availability, and deep nursing capacity support this rating.
Public care
StrongBroad public coverage, relatively low patient cost-sharing, and country-level outcomes are comparatively strong support this rating.
Private care
GoodA large tracked hospital and clinic network and a clearly private facility base help, but self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
88/100
2023
Physicians
3.68/1k
2022
Hospital beds
2.68/1k
2022
Out of pocket
11%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
78.9 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
17/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
3.7/1k
2024
International patient readiness
GoodA visible private hospital base and multiple facilities have websites help, but price transparency is still sparse.
Pricing transparency
LimitedMultiple facilities have crawlable websites help, but published self-pay prices are scarce.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in United States yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Information & Technology | $177,148/yr |
| Finance & Insurance | $141,448/yr |
| Professional & Scientific Services | $136,585/yr |
| Utilities | $131,820/yr |
| Manufacturing | $115,376/yr |
| Transport & Logistics | $108,689/yr |
| Mining & Quarrying | $106,681/yr |
| Healthcare & Social Work | $90,012/yr |
| Real Estate | $88,939/yr |
| Other Services | $87,758/yr |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | $85,214/yr |
| Education | $85,171/yr |
| Construction | $82,048/yr |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | $81,372/yr |
| Administrative & Support Services | $75,253/yr |
| Agriculture & Farming | $56,502/yr |
| Hospitality & Food Service | $44,598/yr |
2025 annual wages in Chicago, IL, United States · Source: BLS OEWS (MSA-adjusted)
Price Comparison vs. US
Visa Information (US passport)
Long-Term Visa Programs
investment
US EB-5 Immigrant Investor (Standard)Quick comparison FAQ
Structured from the deltas already shown on this page — no invented facts, no extra data sources.
How far does your money go in Chicago compared with the US?
Your money goes about 1.4x further in Chicago than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Chicago cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Chicago is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 25% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Chicago.
How does rent in Chicago compare with New York City?
Rent in Chicago is about 45% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Chicago?
Groceries in Chicago are about 18% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 18% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Chicago, IL
Chicago is the third-largest city in the United States, on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, and the largest metropolitan center in the Midwest. Relocators weighing Chicago against New York or San Francisco typically gain meaningfully lower rents and home prices for comparable urban density, the most extensive heavy-rail commuter system outside the Northeast Corridor through the L and Metra, and a genuinely walkable downtown grid. The economy is unusually diversified for a major US city: derivatives trading at CME, headquarters presence across pharma (AbbVie), industrial (Boeing's old HQ, Caterpillar, Deere), and food (Mondelez, McDonald's), plus a substantial tech and consulting base. The continental climate brings cold lakefront winters and hot humid summers. English dominates; Spanish is the most significant second language.
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