Cape Town vs Cologne - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 01, 2024

	Cape Town	Cologne
🚶 Cost of living one person	$881	$1752
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2144	$4185
🏠 One person rent	$484	$967
🏘️ Family rent	$966	$1672
🍽️ Food expenses	$259	$477
🚐 Transport expenses	$56.2	$180
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$1518	$3141
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Good
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	15 km
🎓 Higher education	55	92
😀 Quality of life	60	96
🏙️ Population	434K	1.07M

The cost of living in Cape Town is 50% less expensive than in Cologne. Cities ranked 6078th and 2484th ($881 vs $1752) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 3rd and 31st in South Africa and Germany, respectively. Check South Africa vs Germany comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.7 months in Cape Town compared to 1.8 months in Cologne. Cape Town ranked 3rd best city to live in South Africa vs Cologne ranked 1st in Germany, while ranked 5406th and 12th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Cape Town vs Cologne

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

	Cape Town	Cologne
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$7.47	$12.9
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$31.2	$55.9
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$4.87	$10.3
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.04	$3.98
☕ Cappuccino	$1.94	$3.43
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.86	$2.61
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$536	$925
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$353	$719
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1202	$1823
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$749	$1272
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$56.2	$163
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$87	$246
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$39.2	$43.1
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.61%	3.69%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1890	$5594
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1307	$3486
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.04	$3.41
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$34.8	$61.2
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$7.17	$22.1
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.22	$2
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1	$1.26
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.92	$1.94
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.38	$2.57
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.39	$4.27
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.96	$12.4
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.26	$15
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.2	$17.3
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.4	$2.42
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.46	$1.45
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.39	$2.2
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.39	$2.85
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.36	$1.93
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.31	$1.95
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.58	$0.36
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.3	$2.28
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$4.51	$6.32
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.14	$1.12
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.62	$8.18
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$4.8	$8.18
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$2.76	$2.27
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.22	$1.79
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.36	$1.56
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$31.3	$28.9
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$5.42	$12.4
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$32.9	$49.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$10.3	$19
👖 Brand Jeans	$42.7	$90.4
👟 Brand Sneakers	$81.4	$87.8
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$172	$792
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$4013	$16182

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Cape Town

Distance	City	Cost of living
54 km or 33 mi	Paarl	$773
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$632
371 km or 231 mi	George	$684
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$805
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$866
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$643
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$704
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$703
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$753
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$710
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$683
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$601
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$511
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$535
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$689
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$511
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$682
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$765
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$511
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$701
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$621
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$719
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$625
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$738
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$631
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$633
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$698
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$637
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$609
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$875
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$845
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$656
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$603
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$908
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$776
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$807
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$889
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$780
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$751
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$718

Cities near Cologne

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.2 km or 5.7 mi	Hurth	$1520
10 km or 6.4 mi	Leverkusen	$1778
10 km or 6.4 mi	Frechen	$1542
13 km or 7.9 mi	Bruhl	$1468
13 km or 7.9 mi	Pulheim	$1551
14 km or 8.4 mi	Wesseling	$1500
14 km or 8.5 mi	Bergisch Gladbach	$1490
15 km or 9.3 mi	Niederkassel	$1515
16 km or 10 mi	Rosrath	$1499
18 km or 11 mi	Monheim am Rhein	$1575
19 km or 12 mi	Dormagen	$1547
19 km or 12 mi	Erftstadt	$1497
19 km or 12 mi	Langenfeld	$1562
20 km or 12 mi	Troisdorf	$1512
20 km or 12 mi	Leichlingen	$1556
20 km or 12 mi	Kerpen	$1501
21 km or 13 mi	Bornheim	$1516
21 km or 13 mi	Lohmar	$1498
22 km or 14 mi	Bergheim	$1505
23 km or 15 mi	Siegburg	$1504
24 km or 15 mi	Overath	$1462
25 km or 16 mi	Sankt Augustin	$1520
25 km or 16 mi	Bonn	$1593
26 km or 16 mi	Hilden	$1501
26 km or 16 mi	Solingen	$1511
27 km or 17 mi	Elsdorf	$1484
28 km or 17 mi	Wermelskirchen	$1388
28 km or 17 mi	Haan	$1458
28 km or 18 mi	Bedburg	$1484
29 km or 18 mi	Hennef	$1494
31 km or 19 mi	Grevenbroich	$1488
31 km or 19 mi	Remscheid	$1276
31 km or 20 mi	Erkrath	$1493
33 km or 20 mi	Konigswinter	$1516
34 km or 21 mi	Euskirchen	$1489
34 km or 21 mi	Neuss	$1476
34 km or 21 mi	Mettmann	$1432
35 km or 21 mi	Zulpich	$1478
35 km or 21 mi	Meckenheim	$1506
35 km or 22 mi	Dusseldorf	$1776