Chicago, IL vs Boston, MA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Boston spends 52.2% more per capita than Chicago ($37,747/person difference). Chicago, IL has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (C, 61/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Property Tax | $26 | $0 |
| Sales Tax | $74 | $78 |
| Income Tax | $229 | $0 |
| Intergovernmental | $85,083 | $5,357 |
| Charges & Fees | $2,847 | $2,784 |
| Other | $3,463 | $4,557 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Fire Protection | $10,754 | $1,107 |
| Highways & Roads | $930 | $594 |
| Education | $0 | $30,742 |
| Public Welfare | $1,858 | $1,110 |
| Health | $426 | $725 |
| Hospitals | $1,444 | $2,584 |
| Parks & Recreation | $122 | $711 |
| Housing | $6,520 | $6,614 |
| Sewerage | $129 | $355 |
| Utilities | $2,983 | $3,402 |
| General Admin | $0 | $5,401 |
| Other | $9,385 | $18,955 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.