Houston
Los Angeles
New York
Chicago
Cities
Transit
16.9%
Poverty rate in 2022
34.4 minutes
Commute time average
33,114,058
Passengers boarded in 2022
What do Chicago's peer cities have going for them?
A host of characteristics make cities vibrant, desirable and high-profile. No one has everything, but some have more than others. Over time, some lose their edge. Others, through vision and planning, manage to raise their profiles. Here are cities Crain's staff deemed to be comparable in some ways to Chicago.
Compiled by John Pletz and Cassandra West
Dallas
Miami
San Francisco
Boston
Economy
Gross domestic product in Cook County in 2022
$417.6B
Percent of population with a bachelor's degree (2018-2022)
42.4%
Education
Office rent (Class A space, per square foot) in the first quarter of 2024
$41.24
Companies
Number of Fortune 500 companies in 2023
25
Hotel availability rank
#20
Total space rank at Chicago McCormick Place
#1
Convention center
Housing
0.3% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
Read story
Photos by Getty Images and Bloomberg
Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, Data USA, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Fortune.com, Boyd Co., BizCosts, The Wall Street Journal, CBRE Research, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, Bureau of Labor Statistics
2021
2019
2020
2022
2023
0
2 million
4 million
6 million
8 million
10 million
4.79M
4.76M
4.63M
4.39M
4.77M
Jobs
17%
41.4 minutes
14,367,438
Passengers boarded in 2022 (LaGuardia Airport)
Gross domestic product in 2022
$781B
40.2%
$86.34
65
#2
Total space rank at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
#5
0.8% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
10.10M
9.99M
9.63M
9.03M
10.01M
17.1%
31.6 minutes
32,323,365
Gross domestic product in Los Angeles County in 2022
$790B
36.7%
$47.39
5
Total space rank at Los Angeles Convention Center
#30
2.1% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
6.40M
6.27M
6.10M
5.64M
19.6%
27.5 minutes
19,813,054
Gross domestic product in Harris County in 2022
$402.8B
35.2%
$39.47
22
#3
Total space rank at George R. Brown Convention Center
#17
6.4% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
3.38M
3.31M
3.16M
2.99M
3.18M
17.5%
26.9 minutes
35,345,122
Gross domestic product in Dallas County in 2022
$299.8B
36.5%
$35.89
20
#12
Total space rank at Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center
#26
12.3% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
4.31M
4.19M
3.97M
3.72M
3.84M
20%
28 minutes
23,946,445
Gross domestic product in Miami-Dade County in 2022
$184.5B
34.2%
$58.23
#27
Total space rank at Miami Beach Convention Center
#24
6.6% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
2.94M
2.85M
2.74M
2.57M
2.75M
San francisco
10.5%
32.8 minutes
20,411,222
Gross domestic product in San Francisco County in 2022
$234B
59.8%
$72.38
19
#10
Total space rank at George R. Moscone Convention Center
0.9% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
2.53M
2.49M
2.42M
2.25M
2.51M
30.6 minutes
17,443,382
Gross domestic product in Suffolk County in 2022
$152B
53.4%
$52.48
9
#4
Total space rank at Boston Convention & Exhibition Center
#14
1.5% of cumulative job growth between 2019 and 2023
2.89M
2.81M
2.60M
2.84M
