Chicago or Singapore?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nature & day trips and sights concentration with your weighting.
Wins on beaches & swimming and value for money with your weighting.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. Singapore leads by 47 points.47
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 53 | 100 |
| Swim season months | 1 | 12 |
| Beaches 10 km | 12 | 42 |
| Coast distance | 10,000 km | 2 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 2 km |
Places to eat. Singapore leads by 6 points.6
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81 | 87 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 2,147 | 4,115 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 37 | 31 |
Museums & heritage. Singapore leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 46 | 50 |
| Museums within 10 km | 45 | 57 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 20 | 26 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 44 | 46 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
Nightlife. Singapore leads by 12 points.12
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 62 | 74 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 1,123 | 1,973 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 728 | 1,393 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 65 | 71 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 51 | 77 |
Nature & day trips. Chicago leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 38 | 34 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 6 | 1 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 100 | 53 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 156 hectares |
Good for families. Singapore leads by 13 points.13
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 55 | 68 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 18 | 28 |
| Park area within 2 km | 118 hectares | 156 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 2 | 5 |
Sights concentration. Chicago leads by 4 points.4
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 70 | 66 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 217 | 172 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. Singapore leads by 27 points.27
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 70 |
| Price level global | 100 | 62 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. Singapore leads by 5 points.5
| Chicago | Singapore | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 57 | 62 |
| Monthly daytime high | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C | 30.6 °C to 32.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 54 mm to 121 mm | 109 mm to 329 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
When should you go?
The figures behind each month. Each row is shaded against that destination's own year, so the deepest cell is its best month for that measure and the palest its weakest. Shades are not comparable between the two rows.
Temperature and rainfall are thirty-year climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre). Singapore: 1991-2020 normals, Singapore / Changi Airport (17 km from centre).
Getting there
| Flying from | Chicago | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| TokyoHND, NRT | 12 h 35 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 6 h 55 m €310-338 SIN · 17 km |
| New YorkJFK, EWR, LGA | 2 h 5 m €201-231 ORD · 25 km | 18 h 45 m €835 SIN · 17 km |
| SeoulICN, GMP | 13 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 6 h 5 m €240-286 1 stop SIN · 17 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 8 h 30 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 13 h 15 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 4 h 0 m €195-265 1 stop ORD · 25 km | 17 h 15 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
| LondonLHR, LGW, STN, LTN +2 | 8 h 10 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 13 h 30 m €463-619 1 stop SIN · 17 km |
| SeattleSEA, BFI | 3 h 55 m €250-272 1 stop ORD · 25 km | 15 h 55 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
| Hong KongHKG | 15 h 25 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 3 h 40 m €240-261 1 stop SIN · 17 km |
| New DelhiDEL | 14 h 50 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 5 h 35 m €238-293 SIN · 17 km |
| Abu DhabiAUH | 14 h 25 m no fares ORD · 25 km | 7 h 35 m no fares SIN · 17 km |
The busiest departure cities for these two, with a place kept for each other part of the world. Busiest means arriving passengers where an official count exists, and where none does, the number of non-stop services flown: official route statistics are published by the European reporting countries and by nobody else, so a table ranked on them alone would offer a reader in New York or Tokyo ten European cities. Flying times are estimated from the distance between airports, and every row is a city flown non-stop to both. Where the typical offer connects anyway, the stops are shown. Under each figure is the airport the flight lands at and how far that is from the centre, because the nearest airport is not always the one a route is flown to. Where both columns name the same airport it is one flight, and the difference between the two is the distance printed beside it. Typical return fares for 2026-08 to 2026-10, cached market data up to 7 days old. The figure is the middle half of the offers found, so a single price means they agreed and a range means they did not; for a typical route that middle half spans about a quarter of the median, and for the least settled routes rather more than the median itself.
Before you go
| Measure | Chicago | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| Official language | – | English, Tamil, Malay, Standard Chinese |
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | Singapore Dollar (SGD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | G230 V, 50 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Left |
| Time zone | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer | UTC+8 |
| Emergency number | 911 | Police 999, ambulance 995, fire 995 |
| Elevation | 179 m | 21 m |
| Main airport | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations | Singapore Changi Airport (SIN)17 km from centre165 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 11 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | Chicago | Singapore |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 2,746,388 | 5,866,139 |
| People per km² | 4,529 | 8,158 |
| Museums within 10 km | 43 | 40 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 1 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 87 | 107 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 1 month | 12 months |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Chicago or Singapore somewhere new.