Arlington vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 11, 2026

	Arlington	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1907	$1126
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$4693	$3097
🏠 One person rent	$1121	$600
🏘️ Family rent	$1937	$1068
🍽️ Food expenses	$561	$293
🚐 Transport expenses	$86.4	$108
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$3714	$879
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	23 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	90	99
😀 Quality of life	78	75
🏙️ Population	394K	24.9M

The cost of living in Arlington is 69% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 2397th and 4971st ($1907 vs $1126) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1784th and 5th in the United States and China, respectively. Check the United States vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.9 months in Arlington compared to 0.8 months in Shanghai. Arlington ranked 264th best city to live in the United States vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 894th and 1655th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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Prices in Arlington vs Shanghai

Prices for goods and services in Arlington and Shanghai are partly crowdsourced by our visitors, just like yourself. Please consider telling us about your city.

	Arlington	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$16	$5.01
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$56.8	$36.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$10.7	$5.51
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$5.17	$1.69
☕ Cappuccino	$5.41	$3.77
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2.78	$0.54
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1271	$803
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$867	$486
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2259	$1462
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1561	$880
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$120	$37.5
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$183	$58.6
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$53.4	$13
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	6.24%	3.34%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2186	$14215
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2186	$7113
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$5.22	$0.47
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$39.7	$30.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$14.5	$6.45
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$0.75	$1.15
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.86	$1.94
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.82	$1.8
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.44	$1.3
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.01	$1.79
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.89	$16.2
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$10.9	$3.91
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$17	$11.6
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.18	$2.35
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.05	$1.74
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.55	$1.78
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.19	$1.76
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.17	$0.89
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.01	$1.04
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.55	$0.45
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.83	$1.27
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$12.8	$12.5
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.95	$0.92
🚬 Cigarette pack	$8.59	$3.46
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$9.18	$6.19
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.11	$6.91
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$4.46	$2.07
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.02	$2.21
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$39.2	$61.9
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$11.1	$7.84
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$105	$94.1
💇 Haircut, simple	$12.7	$12
👖 Brand Jeans	$53	$50.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$92.2	$78.8
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$1389	$1114
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$25323	$27781

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Arlington

Distance	City	Cost of living
10 km or 6.2 mi	Grand Prairie	$2127
14 km or 8.9 mi	Mansfield	$2302
15 km or 9.6 mi	Hurst	$2127
16 km or 9.8 mi	Bedford	$2126
16 km or 10 mi	Euless	$2114
19 km or 12 mi	Haltom	$2145
19 km or 12 mi	North Richland Hills	$2141
20 km or 12 mi	Irving	$2114
20 km or 13 mi	Colleyville	$2124
21 km or 13 mi	Fort Worth	$2219
21 km or 13 mi	Duncanville	$2198
21 km or 13 mi	Cedar Hill	$2195
22 km or 14 mi	Watauga	$2128
26 km or 16 mi	Grapevine	$2076
27 km or 17 mi	Burleson	$2175
27 km or 17 mi	Keller	$2105
27 km or 17 mi	Southlake	$2129
27 km or 17 mi	DeSoto	$2193
28 km or 17 mi	Midlothian	$2193
29 km or 18 mi	Saginaw	$2152
30 km or 18 mi	Coppell	$2142
30 km or 19 mi	Dallas	$2461
31 km or 19 mi	Benbrook	$2155
34 km or 21 mi	Farmers Branch	$2190
35 km or 21 mi	Lancaster	$2212
35 km or 22 mi	University Park	$2258
37 km or 23 mi	Flower Mound	$2135
38 km or 24 mi	Carrollton	$2188
39 km or 24 mi	Lewisville	$2076
43 km or 27 mi	Waxahachie	$2196
47 km or 29 mi	Cleburne	$2177
48 km or 30 mi	Balch Springs	$2208
48 km or 30 mi	Richardson	$2246
48 km or 30 mi	The Colony	$2233
49 km or 30 mi	Mesquite	$2147
49 km or 30 mi	Corinth	$2177
51 km or 32 mi	Garland	$2357
52 km or 32 mi	Plano	$2127
54 km or 33 mi	Little Elm	$2225
56 km or 35 mi	Frisco	$2393

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1002
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$669
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$696
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$701
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$782
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$594
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$620
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$644
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$557
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$667
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$683
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$643
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$650
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$584
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$671
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$636
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$680
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$684
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$623
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$646
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$860
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$636
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$647
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$652
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$611
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$652
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$604
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$675
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$678
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$525
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$618
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$626
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$644
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$667
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$677
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$601
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$661
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$665
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$632
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$765