Florida vs Illinois: Cost of Living, Taxes, Rent and Safety Compared
Weighing a move between Florida and Illinois? Here’s how they compare on the numbers that decide most moves, from the same public data Locustep uses to rank all 50 states.
Shaded cells are the lower-cost, higher-income or lower-risk figure. Indexes: U.S. average = 100.
What it means for your budget
Rent alone: moving from Florida to Illinois changes a typical two-bedroom rent by −$238 a month (−$2,856 a year); the move the other way flips the sign. Taxes, pay, insurance and the move itself shift too, and how much depends on your income, your household and the city you pick.
That’s exactly what Locustep’s Net-Impact Report works out: your take-home pay after state and local taxes in both places, rent or buy for your budget, insurance and moving costs, and the month the move pays for itself.
Which state fits you better?
On Locustep’s directional scores, Illinois leads on walkability. Which of those matters depends entirely on you.
Where people look in each state
Florida
Miami
$2,564/mo two-bedroom
Realistically, Miami is a hot, humid, intensely international city where Spanish is as useful as English and the social scene runs late. Expect world-class food and nightlife, brutal traffic, hurricane season, and housing costs that badly outpace local wages.
Orlando
$1,959/mo two-bedroom
Orlando is a sprawling, car-dependent service-and-tourism economy built around the theme parks, with a fast-growing tech and simulation sector alongside it. Cheap by big-metro standards, relentlessly hot and rainy in summer, and light on walkable neighbourhoods outside a few pockets.
Tampa
$1,917/mo two-bedroom
Tampa is the most balanced of Florida's big metros — real jobs in finance, healthcare and shipping, a genuine downtown, and beaches within half an hour. Traffic and insurance costs are rising fast, and flood exposure is a serious line item.
Chicago is a genuinely great American city — world-class architecture, museums, food and transit, with lakefront summers that make the brutal winters worth it. Housing is cheap for its size, though property taxes and neighbourhood-level violence vary sharply.
Naperville
$2,011/mo two-bedroom
Naperville is an affluent western suburb of Chicago with top-rated schools, a riverwalk and a commuter train downtown. Safe, family-focused, expensive by Illinois standards, and thoroughly suburban.
Springfield
$1,237/mo two-bedroom
Springfield is Illinois's state capital and Lincoln's town — government employment, a low cost of living and a quiet central-Illinois pace. Flat, affordable, and short on big-city amenities.
On rent, Illinois is cheaper: a typical two-bedroom is $1,724 a month against $1,962 (HUD FY2027). Everyday costs, housing excluded, index at 100.1 in Florida and 101.5 in Illinois (U.S. = 100). Whether you come out ahead also depends on your pay and taxes in each state.
Which has lower taxes, Florida or Illinois?
Florida. A married couple on the U.S. median household income would pay about 4.7% of it in state and local taxes, against 12.7% in Illinois (Locustep estimate). Florida has no tax on wages; Illinois’s top rate is 4.95%.
Is Florida safer than Illinois?
By violent crime, Florida is lower: 267.1 per 100,000 residents against 289.2 (FBI, 2024). On natural hazards, FEMA puts Florida at the 76th percentile and Illinois at the 30th (lower is safer).
Which has better weather, Florida or Illinois?
It depends what you want. Winter afternoons average 73°F in Orlando and 35°F in Chicago; summer afternoons 91°F and 82°F (NOAA 1991–2020). Florida: hot & humid, subtropical. Illinois: four distinct seasons.