Blantyre vs Cape Town - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Blantyre	Cape Town
🚶 Cost of living one person	$507	$1071
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$1439	$2522
🏠 One person rent	$147	$582
🏘️ Family rent	$369	$1083
🍽️ Food expenses	$210	$273
🚐 Transport expenses	$98.9	$124
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$499	$1532
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Excellent
✈️ Airport proximity	12 km	7 km
🎓 Higher education	22	56
😀 Quality of life	25	58
🏙️ Population	800K	3.78M

The cost of living in Blantyre is 53% less expensive than in Cape Town. Cities ranked 8593rd and 5016th ($507 vs $1071) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 5th and 3rd in Malawi and South Africa, respectively. Check Malawi vs South Africa comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1 months in Blantyre compared to 1.4 months in Cape Town. Blantyre ranked 1st best city to live in Malawi vs Cape Town ranked 1st in South Africa, while ranked 8566th and 5491st among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Blantyre vs Cape Town 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/blantyre/cape-town.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Blantyre vs Cape Town infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/blantyre/cape-town" target="_blank">Blantyre vs Cape Town - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Blantyre vs Cape Town

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

	Blantyre	Cape Town
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$3.98	$8.4
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$12.7	$32.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$6.71	$4.87
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.01	$2.58
☕ Cappuccino	$2.01	$2.03
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.82	$1.03
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$175	$677
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$81.7	$435
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$454	$1304
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$274	$863
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$21.8	$59.9
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$33.5	$93.1
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$25.2	$38.9
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	12.26%	11.89%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$10525	$1804
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$398	$1180
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.85	$1.09
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$15.1	$39
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$20.2	$8.47
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.21	$1.23
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.81	$1.08
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.93	$1.03
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.4	$1.48
🥚 Eggs, x12	$1.37	$2.58
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.91	$8.33
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.51	$5.42
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.13	$7.24
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.77	$1.53
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.32	$1.45
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.44	$1.47
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.86	$1.57
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.98	$1.33
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.34	$1.13
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.53	$0.62
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$0.73	$1.43
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$8.55	$5.48
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$0.94	$1.39
🚬 Cigarette pack	$1.87	$3.02
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$1.48	$4.02
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$1.3	$3.17
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$0.73	$2.11
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$0.7	$1.49
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$41.8	$34.4
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$1.45	$6.22
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$17.1	$35.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$2.97	$8.05
👖 Brand Jeans	$34	$51
👟 Brand Sneakers	$59.1	$104
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$359	$204
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$591	$4806

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

$349

$907

$6.64K

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Blantyre

Distance	City	Cost of living
57 km or 35 mi	Zomba	$457
60 km or 37 mi	Mulanje	$461
112 km or 70 mi	Ntcheu	$492
149 km or 92 mi	Mangochi	$493
157 km or 98 mi	Tete	$825
191 km or 119 mi	Monkey Bay	$518
240 km or 149 mi	Lilongwe	$587
307 km or 191 mi	Quelimane	$675
405 km or 252 mi	Chimoio	$947
432 km or 269 mi	Mutare	$752
450 km or 280 mi	Beira	$1003
454 km or 282 mi	Marondera	$794
458 km or 285 mi	Mzimba	$566
463 km or 287 mi	Nampula	$872
478 km or 297 mi	Harare	$992
487 km or 303 mi	Chitungwiza	$873
493 km or 307 mi	Mzuzu	$525
541 km or 336 mi	Chinhoyi	$646
611 km or 380 mi	Kadoma	$723
626 km or 389 mi	Nacala	$1150
637 km or 396 mi	Kwekwe	$730
650 km or 404 mi	Masvingo	$854
674 km or 419 mi	Pemba	$1506
685 km or 425 mi	Gweru	$597
708 km or 440 mi	Kapiri Mposhi	$687
721 km or 448 mi	Lusaka	$738
746 km or 463 mi	Kasama	$748
754 km or 469 mi	Ndola	$541
784 km or 487 mi	Mbeya	$461
803 km or 499 mi	Kitwe	$917
811 km or 504 mi	Mufulira	$1018
837 km or 520 mi	Mansa	$776
837 km or 520 mi	Bulawayo	$766
849 km or 528 mi	Chingola	$875
865 km or 537 mi	Choma	$700
935 km or 581 mi	Lubumbashi	$1050
991 km or 616 mi	Francistown	$624
999 km or 621 mi	Livingstone	$688
1000 km or 621 mi	Moroni	$1105
1038 km or 645 mi	Morogoro	$486

Cities near Cape Town

Distance	City	Cost of living
54 km or 33 mi	Paarl	$1147
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$619
371 km or 231 mi	George	$743
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$840
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$901
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$699
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$763
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$915
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$814
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$1332
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$766
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$657
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$567
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$621
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$852
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$500
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$748
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$827
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$535
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$768
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$722
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$780
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$695
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$792
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$665
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$664
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$773
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$672
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$640
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$923
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$889
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$691
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$628
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$993
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$837
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$862
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$953
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$809
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$813
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$740