Philadelphia, PA vs Boston, MA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Boston spends 22.2% more per capita than Philadelphia ($16,027/person difference). Boston, MA has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (C, 56/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $107 | $78 |
| Income Tax | $8 | $0 |
| Intergovernmental | $6,288 | $5,357 |
| Charges & Fees | $2,790 | $2,784 |
| Other | $4,029 | $4,557 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Police | $1,505 | $0 |
| Fire Protection | $7,082 | $1,107 |
| Highways & Roads | $1,215 | $594 |
| Education | $0 | $30,742 |
| Public Welfare | $1,456 | $1,110 |
| Health | $229 | $725 |
| Hospitals | $4,048 | $2,584 |
| Parks & Recreation | $593 | $711 |
| Housing | $4,902 | $6,614 |
| Sewerage | $325 | $355 |
| Utilities | $4,222 | $3,402 |
| Interest on Debt | $3 | $0 |
| General Admin | $0 | $5,401 |
| Other | $30,692 | $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.