Cities similar to Chicago

Ranked by how close each city sits to Chicago across ten measured metrics: sex ratio, cost, rent, salary, safety, air, green space, places to eat and universities. Closer is more alike, not better.

Atlanta is the closest match, 7.9 percentile points from Chicago across 10 shared metrics. The two sit within eight percentile points of each other on cost of living, local salary and safety. The band widens slowly from there: the last city listed sits 13.4 away, so these 10 are a cluster rather than a ranking with a clear winner. 7 of the 10 are also in United States of America; the other 3 are abroad. Distance says how alike two cities measure, never which one is better to live in: a city can be close to Chicago because both score badly on the same things.

921 cities ranked by male-to-female ratio, 848 of them measured below national level, 104 country deep-dives.

Closest on
AtlantaUnited States of America7.910cost of living, local salary, safety
BirminghamUnited Kingdom10.09safety, salary against local costs, cost of living
PhiladelphiaUnited States of America10.710local salary, safety, cost of living
MinneapolisUnited States of America11.310salary against local costs, cost of living, city-centre rent
PortlandUnited States of America11.310women aged 20–39, local salary, city-centre rent
DallasUnited States of America12.110local salary, cost of living, salary against local costs
HoustonUnited States of America12.810salary against local costs, safety, local salary
WashingtonUnited States of America12.810places to eat, city-centre rent, local salary
BrusselsBelgium13.410places to eat, women aged 20–39, cost of living
Frankfurt am MainGermany13.410places to eat, salary against local costs, clean air

Distance is the root-mean-square gap in percentile points across the metrics both cities carry, so 0 would be an exact match and 100 the opposite end of every scale. A pair scored on fewer than 8 shared metrics is not listed.

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Compare Chicago with Atlanta

Data updated