Chicago vs. Dallas
Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers. Median, spread and buying power, side by side.
Data released May 2025
BLS OEWS · SOC 33-3051
Fig. 1 — Side by side
Both distributions, one scale
10th to 90th percentile, median struck in red
Table 1 — Adjusted
Chicago's median is 13.8% higher — but after local prices, Chicago still leads by 13.4%.
Chicago's median $107,810 buys $104,100 at national prices (price parity 103.6); Dallas's $92,910 buys $90,100 (103.1).
Table 2 — The figures
Point by point
Published percentiles for both metros; the last column is Dallas against Chicago.
| Chicago | Dallas | Δ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employment | 22,680 | 16,430 | −27.6% |
| 10th percentile | $63,450 | $62,700 | −1.2% |
| 25th percentile | $86,630 | $76,250 | −12.0% |
| Median | $107,810 | $92,910 | −13.8% |
| 75th percentile | $107,810 | $97,620 | −9.5% |
| 90th percentile | $123,130 | $104,100 | −15.5% |
Sources
How this page was made
- Wage data
- Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 release. Public domain.
- Price parity
- Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Full pages
- Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers in Chicago · Police and Sheriff's Patrol Officers in Dallas
Percentiles are reported exactly as released. Derived (price-adjusted) figures round to the nearest hundred. We take no payment for how any figure is presented.