Cape Town vs Riyadh - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 11, 2026

	Cape Town	Riyadh
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1366	$1632
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3099	$3539
🏠 One person rent	$773	$946
🏘️ Family rent	$1343	$1446
🍽️ Food expenses	$355	$370
🚐 Transport expenses	$124	$183
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$404	$2285
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	7 km	21 km
🎓 Higher education	55	70
😀 Quality of life	55	78
🏙️ Population	3.78M	7.01M

The cost of living in Cape Town is 16% less expensive than in Riyadh. Cities ranked 4432nd and 3529th ($1366 vs $1632) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 2nd and 1st in South Africa and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Check South Africa vs Saudi Arabia comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.3 months in Cape Town compared to 1.4 months in Riyadh. Cape Town ranked 4th best city to live in South Africa vs Riyadh ranked 1st in Saudi Arabia, while ranked 6382nd and 879th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Cape Town vs Riyadh

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

	Cape Town	Riyadh
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$12.5	$8.06
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$49.7	$53.3
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$5.71	$7.94
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$3.13	$1.62
☕ Cappuccino	$2.42	$4.33
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$1.39	$0.79
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$874	$1000
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$594	$763
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1556	$1845
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1079	$1133
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$84.1	$63.5
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$129	$98.6
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$39	$72.1
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.25%	5.58%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2160	$2922
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1500	$1930
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.16	$1.08
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$32.7	$37.3
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$9.46	$18.3
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.36	$0.61
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.35	$1.61
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.21	$1.27
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.24	$2.52
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.91	$2.69
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.29	$8.76
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.21	$9.8
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.46	$15.2
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.83	$2.26
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.81	$1.68
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.79	$1.82
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.94	$1.52
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.52	$1.23
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.47	$1.45
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.79	$0.38
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.84	$2.39
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$6.59	$8.07
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.49	$1.77
🚬 Cigarette pack	$3.44	$7.34
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$5.94	$2.71
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.02	$4.31
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.49	$2.38
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.67	$5.23
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$49.6	$93.5
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$8.6	$14.7
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$39.1	$51.6
💇 Haircut, simple	$11.2	$8.02
👖 Brand Jeans	$59.9	$57
👟 Brand Sneakers	$127	$111
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$264	$495
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$5378	$9443

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	$1345
99 km or 62 mi	Worcester	$718
371 km or 231 mi	George	$927
644 km or 400 mi	Uitenhage	$980
662 km or 411 mi	Port Elizabeth	$1036
664 km or 413 mi	Upington	$811
754 km or 468 mi	Makhanda	$874
821 km or 510 mi	Komani	$1050
833 km or 518 mi	Kimberley	$927
845 km or 525 mi	Bhisho	$1419
882 km or 548 mi	East London	$795
912 km or 567 mi	Bloemfontein	$763
950 km or 590 mi	Mafeteng	$630
999 km or 621 mi	Maseru	$681
1002 km or 622 mi	Mthatha	$952
1029 km or 639 mi	Teyateyaneng	$573
1030 km or 640 mi	Welkom	$826
1034 km or 643 mi	Mariental	$986
1092 km or 679 mi	Butha-Buthe	$604
1092 km or 679 mi	Kroonstad	$875
1113 km or 692 mi	Klerksdorp	$826
1135 km or 705 mi	Mmabatho	$901
1155 km or 718 mi	Potchefstroom	$791
1187 km or 737 mi	Rehoboth	$934
1194 km or 742 mi	Lobatse	$697
1198 km or 745 mi	Kanye	$694
1208 km or 751 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$865
1217 km or 756 mi	Vereeniging	$765
1231 km or 765 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$716
1244 km or 773 mi	Soweto	$1057
1250 km or 777 mi	Rustenburg	$1017
1260 km or 783 mi	Gaborone	$731
1261 km or 783 mi	Molepolole	$662
1261 km or 784 mi	Johannesburg	$1171
1267 km or 788 mi	Randburg	$958
1269 km or 789 mi	Windhoek	$1023
1270 km or 789 mi	Sandton	$1089
1271 km or 790 mi	Durban	$948
1277 km or 794 mi	Gobabis	$968
1279 km or 795 mi	Walvis Bay	$905

Cities near Riyadh

Distance	City	Cost of living
310 km or 193 mi	Al-Mubarraz	$793
316 km or 196 mi	Unaizah	$931
350 km or 217 mi	Ar Rass	$815
389 km or 242 mi	Dhahran	$931
394 km or 245 mi	Dammam	$1037
395 km or 245 mi	Jubail	$928
417 km or 259 mi	Qatif	$823
420 km or 261 mi	Riffa	$1109
421 km or 262 mi	Isa Town	$1192
426 km or 265 mi	Manama	$1309
460 km or 286 mi	Al Wafrah	$1281
480 km or 298 mi	As Sulayyil	$1005
491 km or 305 mi	Doha	$2014
496 km or 308 mi	Al Khor	$1923
540 km or 336 mi	Kuwait City	$1461
595 km or 369 mi	Ha'il	$775
611 km or 379 mi	Umm Qasr	$711
618 km or 384 mi	Al-Faw	$707
631 km or 392 mi	Bushehr	$465
646 km or 401 mi	Az Zubayr	$698
652 km or 405 mi	Abadan	$556
658 km or 409 mi	Basra	$861
659 km or 410 mi	Khorramshahr	$551
668 km or 415 mi	Bisha	$906
680 km or 423 mi	Borazjan	$489
701 km or 436 mi	Bandar-e Mahshahr	$537
713 km or 443 mi	Madinat Zayed	$1710
714 km or 443 mi	Nasiriyah	$664
719 km or 447 mi	Medina	$1168
737 km or 458 mi	Kazerun	$523
747 km or 464 mi	Behbahan	$492
754 km or 469 mi	Samawah	$581
766 km or 476 mi	Ahvaz	$571
775 km or 481 mi	Abu Dhabi	$2070
790 km or 491 mi	Mecca	$1107
798 km or 496 mi	Shiraz	$565
800 km or 497 mi	Amarah	$680
804 km or 499 mi	Bareq	$893
804 km or 500 mi	Jahrom	$545
823 km or 511 mi	Yasuj	$487