After doing a little research on cheap countries to live in and not being able to find the straightforward answers on the cost of living I was looking for, I decided to scour the web and start crunching numbers myself to put all of the info in one place.
Here is a list of most countries with monthly cost of living for a single ex-pat.
I’m continuing the crunching to include other essential information in a straightforward way - safety, internet strength, air quality, other perks (long term visas, easy citizenship, access to other countries, etc.) and will keep updating the full data in the article I’ll dedicate to this here.
Country - Monthly Cost of Living
Bangladesh $699
Tunisia $891
Egypt $925
India $929
Bhutan $935
Bolivia $1,044
Togo $1,088
Bosnia and Herzegovina $1,104
Nicaragua $1,108
Madagascar $1,112
Algeria $1,129
Zambia $1,136
Nigeria $1,155
Paraguay $1,162
Cape Verde $1,173
Tanzania $1,196
Suriname $1,214
Lesotho $1,230
Argentina $1,247
Tajikistan $1,270
Botswana $1,305
Azerbaijan $1,320
Bulgaria $1,320
Morocco $1,323
Colombia $1,329
Kyrgyzstan $1,349
Ecuador $1,371
Malaysia $1,373
Brazil $1,382
Peru $1,386
Sri Lanka $1,401
Romania $1,409
Uzbekistan $1,417
Fiji $1,430
Uganda $1,482
Moldova $1,490
Cambodia $1,510
Kazakhstan $1,562
South Africa $1,578
Honduras $1,586
Nepal $1,586
Jordan $1,595
Turkey $1,600
Belize $1,607
Dominican Republic $1,609
Albania $1,614
Guatemala $1,629
Mongolia $1,645
Vietnam $1,662
Kenya $1,667
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines $1,688
Cameroon $1,715
Indonesia $1,725
Mauritius $1,744
Chile $1,762
Hungary $1,779
Rwanda $1,801
Mexico $1,825
Greece $1,843
Guyana $1,845
Ghana $1,846
Latvia $1,866
Croatia $1,871
Slovakia $1,874
Serbia $1,886
Namibia $1,906
Costa Rica $1,914
Uruguay $1,989
Angola $2,031
Mozambique $2,042
Philippines $2,061
Brunei $2,134
Thailand $2,136
Georgia $2,160
Jamaica $2,165
Estonia $2,186
Laos $2,219
Zimbabwe $2,220
Montenegro $2,234
Armenia $2,273
Spain $2,329
Ivory Coast $2,335
Oman $2,347
Portugal $2,366
Panama $2,375
Lithuania $2,382
Poland $2,403
Ethiopia $2,455
Bahrain $2,521
Slovenia $2,572
Japan $2,611
Grenada $2,623
Aruba $2,627
Cyprus $2,649
San Marino $2,688
Turkmenistan $2,734
Maldives $2,771
France $2,836
New Caledonia $2,851
Czech Republic $2,875
Trinidad and Tobago $2,876
Belgium $2,892
Austria $2,926
Italy $2,929
Senegal $2,993
Sweden $2,995
Malta $3,057
Seychelles $3,058
Finland $3,191
Andorra $3,264
Kuwait $3,271
Germany $3,340
Norway $3,353
Canada $3,390
Bahamas $3,392
Israel $3,472
United Kingdom $3,569
Netherlands $3,570
New Zealand $3,652
Barbados $3,843
Vanuatu $3,865
Australia $3,893
United Arab Emirates $3,900
Denmark $4,131
Iceland $4,267
Luxembourg $4,470
Ireland $4,483
United States $4,596
Qatar $4,686
Cuba $4,876
Gabon $5,085
Papua New Guinea $6,125
Switzerland $6,214
Singapore $6,856
Bermuda $13,183
Monaco $16,314
Not every country in the world. Taiwan is missing.
Good luck living in Sydney (Australia) for that cost. You’d be lucky to exist in a tent in a garbage dump for that cost
I think this should be done by city, otherwise it’s kinda useless, and the number of cities based on the size of the country. Brazil, USA, etc is really not comparable within the same country, too heterogeneous.
Also, there are massive differences between summer and winter for many countries, Croatia rent price is basically 3x more during summer, so this should be considered.
And since we are in a DN reddit, average rent should be averaged up by combining it with the average airbnb and other short rental prices, otherwise is also useless, because very rarely can a DN get a monthly price for what would be a yearly contract.
God’s work. But I believe that Bhutan requires $100ish per day for visa/guide, which moves it significantly.
Definitely costs more than that to live here in Australia - especially near a major city.
Just spent 4 months living in Ghana - I assume lots of your data points were in Accra, at $1846. But depending on lifestyle factors (eating at western restaurants, luxury accommodation, amount of travel) it could also be way higher.
No way Vietnam is more expensive than Cambodia, everything is way cheaper in the former.
$3.6k for the UK is incredibly off unless you’re solely talking about London or maybe somewhere like Oxford/Cambridge. It doesn’t cost anywhere near that.
I live in the South East, the “expensive part” of the country outside London, and living costs alone even without being particularly frugal or careful, would be half that. Nomads obviously pay a fair bit more, but this isn’t even ballpark.
This just tells me that on the average British salary, I couldn’t live in at least half of the world.
You’re not wrong.
Bangladeshi here, 699USD (±77000BDT as of today’s exchange rate) is good enough for a family of four in any upscale part of Dhaka
You could live the best possible life in Dhaka for 400 a month without any hassle
Averages like this are about as useful as internet speed averages for locations. It really doesn’t help because all we care about is the details of the specific accommodation that we rent out. It’s similar to the way a 5 Mbps avg download speed in some city in Mexico means nothing when I find an Airbnb in that same city that gets 100Mbps/100Mbps. It could be useful to see extremes I guess.
Huh. Today I live on 25% the cost of living in my country.
What are you exactly including on your made-up “cost of living” calculation?
How many beers and cups of coffee per day? Eating at home or on fancy restaurants?
Please give details about your assumptions and calculation base before anything else
Is this measured in HCOL cities because you certainly don’t need to make $55K to live in most areas of the USA.
Armenia is completely off. The average person makes like $500 there (and that’s in the capital).