Chicago vs Vancouver for couples
Chicago, in the United States, and Vancouver, in Canada, are about 2,852 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules. Chicago leads on tax and internet speed; Vancouver on cost, safety and residency rules.
12 questions, about 4 minutes, no account needed. Taking the quiz is free, and so is seeing your #1 city. Full results for both of you are a one-time US$12 (€12 in Europe).
Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Vancouver is cheaper: we estimate about €3,765 a month for a couple living centrally, against €4,338 in Chicago. That is €573 a month, or 13%, less.
Taxes
Chicago has the lighter tax load: the United States is in our low to medium tax tier, Canada in our high tax tier.
Climate
Chicago is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 11°C against 10°C in Vancouver. Chicago is drier, with about 991 mm of rain a year against 1,603 mm in Vancouver (38% less).
Safety
Vancouver is the safer pick: Canada scores 60 out of 100 on safety, 8 points above the United States (52).
Healthcare
Close: the United States scores 70 out of 100 on healthcare and Canada 72.
Internet
Chicago has faster home internet: about 220 Mbps median fixed download against about 170 Mbps in Vancouver.
Language
Main languages: English in Chicago; English, French in Vancouver. English proficiency is rated the same in both: English everywhere.
Residency and visas
Long-term residency is easier to obtain in Canada (comparatively open) than in the United States (possible, with conditions). For short visits, 4 of 198 passports can enter the United States visa-free and 1 can enter Canada.
Which one fits a couple
If one of you puts tax (low to medium tax against high tax) and internet speed (220 Mbps against 170 Mbps) first, Chicago comes out ahead. If the other cares more about cost (€3,765 against €4,338 a month), safety (60 against 52 out of 100) and residency rules (comparatively open against possible, with conditions), Vancouver does.
Climate can pull the two of you apart too: whoever minds rain will prefer Chicago (991 mm a year against 1,603 mm).
Size differs too: Chicago is a large city (1 to 5 million people) and Vancouver a mid-sized one (250,000 to 1 million people). Chicago is inland; Vancouver is coastal.
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Chicago, Vancouver and 913 other cities for both of you at once.