Cape Town vs New York City - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 10, 2024

	Cape Town	New York City
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1120	$4051
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2628	$8925
🏠 One person rent	$603	$2620
🏘️ Family rent	$1117	$4454
🍽️ Food expenses	$284	$807
🚐 Transport expenses	$137	$399
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$1545	$5777
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Good
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	55	100
😀 Quality of life	59	97
🏙️ Population	3.78M	8.8M

The cost of living in Cape Town is 72% less expensive than in New York City. Cities ranked 4849th and 5th ($1120 vs $4051) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 2nd and 3rd in South Africa and the United States, respectively. Check South Africa vs the United States comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.4 months in Cape Town compared to 1.4 months in New York City. Cape Town ranked 1st best city to live in South Africa vs New York City ranked 2nd in the United States, while ranked 5407th and 13th 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 New York City 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/new-york.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Cape Town vs New York City infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/cape-town/new-york" target="_blank">Cape Town vs New York City - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Cape Town vs New York City

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

	Cape Town	New York City
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$7.8	$24.7
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$34	$111
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$5.15	$12.6
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.53	$9.78
☕ Cappuccino	$2.32	$6.22
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$1.04	$3.16
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$705	$2702
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$452	$2361
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1367	$5005
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$889	$3996
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$59	$122
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$91.3	$187
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$41.1	$69.3
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.61%	6.73%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1902	$19111
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1292	$3215
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.14	$2.88
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$45.3	$138
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$8.91	$27.1
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.36	$1.02
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.1	$1.39
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.07	$4.43
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$6.1
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.67	$5.36
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.88	$16.6
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.96	$13.7
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.13	$19.2
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.58	$5.78
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.61	$2.13
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.51	$5.75
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.64	$5.74
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$3.22
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.35	$3.62
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.66	$1.57
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.44	$2.88
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$5.57	$20.1
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.42	$3.49
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.99	$17.1
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$4.24	$10.5
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.42	$10
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.24	$7.97
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.59	$2.36
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$36.2	$144
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$6.5	$19.8
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$38.2	$156
💇 Haircut, simple	$10.4	$25.4
👖 Brand Jeans	$52.1	$65.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$103	$111
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$201	$1717
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$4270	$20585

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	$850
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$649
371 km or 231 mi	George	$790
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$901
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$970
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$741
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$792
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$953
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$859
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$1286
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$703
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$696
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$581
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$627
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$862
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$533
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$774
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$832
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$559
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$788
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$689
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$809
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$717
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$779
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$692
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$690
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$768
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$717
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$674
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$971
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$943
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$718
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$654
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$1079
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$874
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$840
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$997
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$834
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$818
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$790

Cities near New York City

Distance	City	Cost of living
11 km or 6.6 mi	Astoria	$2510
11 km or 6.8 mi	Hoboken	$3280
11 km or 7.1 mi	Jersey	$3002
13 km or 8.3 mi	Union	$2857
14 km or 8.8 mi	West New York	$2634
14 km or 8.9 mi	Bayonne	$3168
15 km or 9.6 mi	North Bergen	$2611
17 km or 10 mi	Secaucus	$2701
17 km or 11 mi	Cliffside Park	$2414
18 km or 11 mi	Kearny	$2671
20 km or 12 mi	Valley Stream	$2715
20 km or 13 mi	Fort Lee	$2165
20 km or 13 mi	Lyndhurst	$2605
22 km or 14 mi	Newark	$2575
23 km or 14 mi	Elizabeth	$2733
23 km or 14 mi	Belleville	$2479
25 km or 15 mi	Hillside	$2664
25 km or 15 mi	Long Beach	$2722
25 km or 15 mi	Nutley	$2493
25 km or 16 mi	East Orange	$2635
25 km or 16 mi	Irvington	$2622
26 km or 16 mi	Rockville Centre	$2607
26 km or 16 mi	Linden	$2762
26 km or 16 mi	Hackensack	$2590
26 km or 16 mi	Bloomfield	$2424
26 km or 16 mi	Teaneck	$2641
26 km or 16 mi	Carteret	$2778
26 km or 16 mi	Passaic	$2646
27 km or 17 mi	Roselle	$2760
27 km or 17 mi	Hempstead	$2702
28 km or 17 mi	Union Township	$2732
28 km or 18 mi	Clifton	$2721
28 km or 18 mi	Maplewood	$2691
29 km or 18 mi	Montclair	$2454
29 km or 18 mi	Bergenfield	$2586
29 km or 18 mi	Mount Vernon	$2811
30 km or 18 mi	Rahway	$2771
30 km or 18 mi	Uniondale	$2578
30 km or 18 mi	West Orange	$2553
30 km or 18 mi	New Rochelle	$3108