New York or Chicago?
Two destinations compared on nine measures of openly sourced data. Weight what matters to you and the verdict follows.
Your match
Wins on nightlife and good for families with your weighting.
Has no clear advantage with the weighting you have chosen.
What matters to you?
Pick a travel style or drag the sliders. The match scores above update as you do.
The verdict
Choose Chicago if you want a compact trip: its museums and nightlife sit within a short walk of the centre, and a little more of the land around it is protected.
Choose New York if eating out and late nights are the point, or if you travel with children: far more restaurants near the centre, twice the attractions and 7 theme parks within reach against 2.
Scoreboard
Each measure scored 0 to 100. Open a row for the figures behind the score.
Beaches & swimming. New York leads by 11 points.11
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 64 | 53 |
| Swim season months | 3 | 1 |
| Beaches 10 km | 17 | 12 |
| Coast distance | 1 km | 10,000 km |
| Water distance | 1 km | 1 km |
Places to eat. New York leads by 14 points.14
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 95 | 81 |
| Restaurants within 2 km of centre | 6,032 | 2,147 |
| Effective number of cuisines within 2 km | 38 | 37 |
Museums & heritage. New York leads by 14 points.14
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 60 | 46 |
| Museums within 10 km | 119 | 45 |
| Museums within 2 km of centre | 31 | 20 |
| Share of museums within 2 km % | 26 | 44 |
| Unesco sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
Nightlife. New York leads by 27 points.27
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 89 | 62 |
| Drinking venues within 4 km | 4,159 | 1,123 |
| Drinking venues within 2 km of centre | 2,015 | 728 |
| Share of drinking venues within 2 km % | 48 | 65 |
| Nightclubs within 4 km | 192 | 51 |
Nature & day trips. New York leads by 1 points.1
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 39 | 38 |
| Protected land share 50 km % | 4 | 6 |
| Landscape blanket share 50 km % | 0 | 0 |
| Land share of disc % | 69 | 100 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 118 hectares |
Good for families. New York leads by 17 points.17
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 72 | 55 |
| Tourist attractions within 2 km | 37 | 18 |
| Park area within 2 km | 134 hectares | 118 hectares |
| Theme parks within 30 km | 7 | 2 |
Sights concentration. New York leads by 4 points.4
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 74 | 70 |
| Notable places within 2 km | 268 | 217 |
| Min wikipedia languages | 5 | 5 |
Value for money. New York and Chicago are level on 43.
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 43 | 43 |
| Price level global | 100 | 100 |
| Daily budget | — | — |
Year-round weather. New York leads by 1 points.1
| New York | Chicago | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 58 | 57 |
| Monthly daytime high | 4.5 °C to 30.1 °C | 0.2 °C to 29.4 °C |
| Monthly rainfall | 74 mm to 112 mm | 54 mm to 121 mm |
| Dry months | 0 | 0 |
Where they differ
Chicago keeps things compact: its museums and its nightlife sit close to the centre, so evenings and afternoons need little travel, and more of the land around it is protected, 6% against 4%.
New York has about three times as many restaurants near the centre, three times the bars and clubs and three times the museums, though only about half of its nightlife is central. For families it holds twice as many attractions near the centre, 7 theme parks within reach against 2 and 17 beaches against 12.
Where they are alike
Neither is a base for wild country. The land around each is only lightly protected, 6% and 4%, and they carry a similar amount of park space near the centre, so greenery is a city matter here rather than a day-trip one.
Their weather years also run in parallel, summer highs near 27-30°C, cold winters, and no month at 40mm of rain or less in either. Both put a large number of notable places within walking distance of the centre.
Which traveller are you?
Anyone travelling for the food and the late hours should take New York: about three times as many restaurants and drinking venues near the centre. Chicago's answer is concentration, most of its nightlife close in, so less ground to cover.
Families are better served in New York, with roughly twice as many attractions near the centre, 7 theme parks within reach against 2, and 17 beaches nearby against 12.
Museum-minded walkers get more choice in New York, about three times the museums and 2 UNESCO-listed places within day-trip reach against 1. Chicago offers museums grouped tightly around the centre, easier to cover on foot.
What the numbers don't tell you
The value comparison between these two carries no information: it rests on a national price level that is identical for both by construction. No daily budget figure exists for either city, so nothing here tells you which trip costs more; that has to be priced separately.
Sunshine is not recorded near either city, so the monthly picture rests on temperature, rainfall and sea temperature alone: that side of the weather is unmeasured rather than poor. The beach figures flatter both as well. The sea is 1km from each centre, but only August reaches 23°C, and the warm months are the crowded ones.
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. New York: 1991-2020 normals, LaGuardia Airport (12.9 km from centre). Chicago: 1991-2020 normals, Chicago Midway Airport (14.5 km from centre).
Chicago's best window runs June to September, ending strongest: 25°C by day, the lake at 20°C and 85mm of rain. Late spring is its wettest, at 115-121mm.
New York's usable season stretches further at both ends, 22°C in May and 5°C in January rather than freezing, but rain sits near 100mm month after month, so its shoulder weeks are milder without being drier. Chicago's winters are the drier of the two.
Getting there
| Flying from | New York | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| MinneapolisMSP, STP | 2 h 35 m no fares EWR · 14 km | 1 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| AtlantaATL, PDK | 2 h 5 m €165-236 EWR · 14 km | 1 h 50 m €141-200 ORD · 25 km |
| BostonBOS, PSM | 1 h 0 m €193-222 JFK · 21 km | 2 h 20 m €220-252 ORD · 25 km |
| Los AngelesLAX, BUR, SNA, VNY | 5 h 20 m €314-354 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 4 h 0 m €195-265 1 stop ORD · 25 km |
| TorontoYYZ, YHM, YTZ | 1 h 20 m €206-234 LGA · 13 km | 1 h 30 m €189-423 ORD · 25 km |
| DetroitDTW, DET, YIP | 1 h 35 m €193-276 1 stop EWR · 14 km | 1 h 5 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| Mexico CityMEX, NLU, TLC | 4 h 40 m €374-446 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 3 h 50 m €253 ORD · 25 km |
| ParisCDG, ORY, BVA | 7 h 30 m €445-517 JFK · 21 km | 8 h 30 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| TokyoHND, NRT | 13 h 30 m €989-1136 JFK · 21 km | 12 h 35 m no fares ORD · 25 km |
| Tel Aviv YafoTLV | 11 h 25 m €622-836 1 stop JFK · 21 km | 12 h 20 m no fares ORD · 25 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 | New York | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Currency | US Dollar (USD) | US Dollar (USD) |
| Sockets | AB120 V, 60 Hz | AB120 V, 60 Hz |
| Driving side | Right | Right |
| Time zone | UTC-5, UTC-4 in summer | UTC-6, UTC-5 in summer |
| Emergency number | 911 | 911 |
| Elevation | 25 m | 179 m |
| Main airport | John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)21 km from centre188 non-stop destinations | Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)25 km from centre272 non-stop destinations |
| Public holidays this year | 13 days | 13 days |
By the numbers
| Measure | New York | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| City population | 8,804,190 | 2,746,388 |
| People per km² | 7,256 | 4,529 |
| Museums within 10 km | 157 | 43 |
| UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km | 2 | 1 |
| Distinct cuisines in the centre | 132 | 87 |
| Swim season, months above 21 °C | 3 months | 1 month |
Where else could you go?
Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow New York or Chicago somewhere new.