Barcelona vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 14, 2025

	Barcelona	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$2087	$1128
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$4665	$3104
🏠 One person rent	$1268	$605
🏘️ Family rent	$2065	$1067
🍽️ Food expenses	$498	$289
🚐 Transport expenses	$170	$110
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$2248	$931
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	13 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	98	100
😀 Quality of life	90	77
🏙️ Population	1.7M	24.9M

The cost of living in Barcelona is 85% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 1764th and 4879th ($2087 vs $1128) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 4th and 5th in Spain and China, respectively. Check Spain vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.1 months in Barcelona compared to 0.8 months in Shanghai. Barcelona ranked 2nd best city to live in Spain vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 229th and 1383rd among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Barcelona vs Shanghai infographic

Share this infographic!

Use the link below to embed the infographic from our site and automatically keep the data layer up to date.

If you prefer to download the image, please credit us as a source.

<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/barcelona/shanghai.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Barcelona vs Shanghai infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/barcelona/shanghai" target="_blank">Barcelona vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Barcelona vs Shanghai

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

	Barcelona	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$17	$4.7
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$64	$40
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$13.8	$5.69
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$5.66	$1.47
☕ Cappuccino	$3.44	$3.79
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2.75	$0.51
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1373	$848
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1063	$485
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2298	$1510
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1757	$875
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$107	$34.2
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$164	$52
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$36.1	$12.8
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	3.22%	3.36%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$6508	$14877
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$4968	$7318
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$2.94	$0.56
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$27.1	$31.8
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$22.9	$6.41
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.78	$1.13
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.26	$2.11
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.74	$1.88
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$1.34
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.7	$1.88
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$16.5	$15.7
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.38	$3.52
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$18	$10.6
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.66	$2.26
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.26	$1.78
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.17	$1.8
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.82	$1.54
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.03	$0.81
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.95	$1.07
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.58	$0.44
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.59	$1.27
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$7	$11.9
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.36	$0.86
🚬 Cigarette pack	$7.04	$3.02
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$6.9	$6.07
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.42	$6
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.03	$2.02
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.65	$2.12
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$57.4	$59.6
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$11.5	$8.24
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$71.4	$92.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$20.9	$12.1
👖 Brand Jeans	$87.9	$52.8
👟 Brand Sneakers	$110	$75.1
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$717	$1172
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$15137	$27624

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Barcelona

Distance	City	Cost of living
7 km or 4.4 mi	L'Hospitalet de Llobregat	$1746
7.4 km or 4.6 mi	Badalona	$2170
9.3 km or 5.8 mi	Cornella de Llobregat	$1603
12 km or 7.5 mi	Sant Boi de Llobregat	$1557
13 km or 8 mi	Ripollet	$1687
17 km or 11 mi	Rubi	$1598
19 km or 12 mi	Sabadell	$1637
24 km or 15 mi	Terrassa	$1590
27 km or 17 mi	Granollers	$1610
28 km or 18 mi	Mataro	$1575
42 km or 26 mi	Vilanova i la Geltru	$1408
48 km or 30 mi	Manresa	$1200
61 km or 38 mi	Vic	$1192
65 km or 40 mi	Lloret de Mar	$1322
83 km or 52 mi	Tarragona	$1445
85 km or 53 mi	Girona	$1580
117 km or 73 mi	Figueres	$1490
131 km or 81 mi	Lleida	$1229
136 km or 85 mi	Andorra la Vella	$1828
141 km or 88 mi	Ordino	$1839
158 km or 98 mi	Perpignan	$1374
176 km or 109 mi	Vinaros	$1468
206 km or 128 mi	Palma de Mallorca	$1930
208 km or 129 mi	Ciutadella de Menorca	$1608
212 km or 131 mi	Narbonne	$1216
230 km or 143 mi	Huesca	$1157
234 km or 145 mi	Beziers	$1501
242 km or 150 mi	Mahon	$1632
245 km or 152 mi	Castellon de la Plana	$1158
247 km or 154 mi	Castres	$1555
250 km or 156 mi	Villarreal	$1212
253 km or 157 mi	Borriana	$1239
254 km or 158 mi	Toulouse	$1657
257 km or 159 mi	Zaragoza	$1457
269 km or 167 mi	Tarbes	$1531
281 km or 174 mi	Sagunto	$1363
282 km or 175 mi	Ibiza	$2804
284 km or 177 mi	Montpellier	$1593
299 km or 186 mi	Pau	$1318
303 km or 189 mi	Valencia	$1703

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1003
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$673
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$696
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$696
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$771
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$597
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$612
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$632
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$547
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$648
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$679
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$631
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$634
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$576
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$713
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$621
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$740
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$674
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$601
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$630
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$826
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$622
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$634
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$639
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$597
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$642
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$597
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$651
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$664
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$531
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$602
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$618
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$637
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$672
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$663
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$590
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$666
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$659
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$617
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$753