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

  • NanderK@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    How is Denmark $4,100?! Sure life is expensive here, but that’s only true if you expect to live in a very nice hotel. A more than decent apartment in Copenhagen is maybe $1,500 per month. Waaay less anywhere else in the country.

  • tatertotski@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I live in Mozambique. My husband and I (both expats) live really comfortably and our monthly budget is $900.

    $2000 is ridiculous.

  • zrgardne@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Cuba at nearly $5k seems inaccurate.

    Offical exchange rate is 24:1 USD. But real life was 80 last time I heard. This may be the problem.

    • The_Sad_horsie@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      His whole list is very inaccurate, I’m thinking he lives a very lavish life and is counting luxury in the budgets

        • smallfrys@alien.topB
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          1 year ago

          In your car or with roommates right? And your car was paid off or you were in one of the few cities you don’t need a car in. I don’t know anyone who can live on their own in an expensive US city for $2k/mo.

            • smallfrys@alien.topB
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              1 year ago

              Yeah, that’s not realistic for most people. Especially if you have pets or kids, or want to be in a relationship.

              • Moist_Passage@alien.topB
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                1 year ago

                It’s definitely unusual but you can definitely have a relationship while living with housemates. Most nomads wouldn’t have pets either

    • develop99@alien.topB
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      1 year ago

      Yeah - You could live comfortably in Cuba for $1000 (or less if you really want to live like a local). Not a great location to be a DN though.

  • zrgardne@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I certainly would not expect Thailand to be more expensive than Philippines.

    Certainly lots of locals in PH are living in $100 a month apartments, but if you want AC and Internet you are spending significantly more. BGC, Makati, Cebu City where most DN would stay seem much more expensive than BKK or Chaing Mai.

    Similar story for Thai vs Pinoy food.

  • smile_politely@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I compare to my own living experiences in some of the mentioned countries and I actually agree with almost all of them. Of course the majority of the expenses are driven by the cost of rental!

  • westcoastmex@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Mexico is more expensive than Chile?? In my experience, Chile and Uruguay are the most expensive countries in Latin America. If your data from Mexico is just Mexico City or beachtowns, then maybe. But Santiago has basically European city prices and Patagonia even more expensive.

  • zurrkat@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    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.

  • cryptoian90@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Where has this data come from? It seems to be of with a lot of countries. You do know Reddit doesn’t give a follow link? You also won’t get any traffic with misinformation.

  • fikri_inter-business@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    I’ve been living in indonesia and malaysia. My experience in indonesia is a bit higher than that for jakarta greater area and special region of yogyakarta

    But for malaysia, mine is much less than that unless you rent in KL sentral

  • tomahawk66mtb@alien.topB
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    1 year ago

    Great work! But I’m thinking that a list based on city/area would probably be more accurate/useful. Especially in countries like Thailand, Indonesia, USA etc. that have massive cost differences between areas. Thoughts?