Los Angeles vs Philadelphia for couples
Los Angeles and Philadelphia are both in the United States, about 3,844 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.
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
Close on cost: we estimate about €4,401 a month for a couple living centrally in Los Angeles and €4,245 in Philadelphia.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: the United States is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Los Angeles is 4°C warmer on average over the year: 18°C against 14°C in Philadelphia. Los Angeles is drier, with about 356 mm of rain a year against 1,112 mm in Philadelphia (68% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 52 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 70 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 220 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: English. English proficiency is rated the same in both: English everywhere.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in the United States is rated possible, with conditions.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in the United States, Los Angeles and Philadelphia share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Los Angeles is 4°C warmer on average (18°C against 14°C); Philadelphia is wetter, with 1,112 mm of rain a year against 356 mm; Los Angeles has more people in the city proper, though both are large (1 to 5 million people). They are 3,844 km apart.
OurNextCity has each partner answer 12 questions privately, then ranks Los Angeles, Philadelphia and 913 other cities for both of you at once.