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
I have to agree with others here, sorry this isn’t a constructive take but I’m not buying some of these numbers. For instance Nepal is one of the cheapest places in the world but it’s far down the list and it’s right next to Jordan, which I found to be a bit expensive (as in, comparable to EU). Portugal is also known to be cheaper than Spain, and Ethiopia much cheaper than both, in my experiences (and also of people I know in the nomad community). Maybe the lifestyle and location variables are screwing with it… I also think there’s a difference between a business expat and a DN; with expat assignments they really spend a ton more than they should in developing countries.
Also there is a similar service to this called NomadList; they break it down by city and also include a bunch of other really helpful data around safety, internet speeds, English literacy, and a ton of other data points.
Also as an aside, your website has a lot of ads; as someone who loves travel blogs I would be so annoyed and exit immediately.
You need to check bahrain and saudi arabia
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.
hmm good work. I dont know how you calculated those but in many governmental statistics, they have average and meidan expenses people pay per year or month. maybe you could use that for better accuracy
basically none of this is right based on any of the countries i’ve been in in my 15 years of nomading.
Papa New Guinea is that expensive ???
$4569 a month in the states? Are you renting a place in LA and driving a high end car?
I think if the data existed to give the medialn cost of living for one person in a one bedroom apt, the values would be more realistic as the extreme lifestyles wouldn’t be increasing the average so much.
Thailand is definitely doable for 1000 dollars per month. Rent 1 room apartment = 150 dollars per month Food = 300 dollars per month (Eating in Thai restaurants the non-expensive options three times a day. With cooking yourself it could be done with 100 dollars anf healthy) Leaves still room for 450 dollars for visa, health insurance (if even needed), scooter rental, power etc