Dresden vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 10, 2024

	Dresden	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1462	$1136
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3582	$3654
🏠 One person rent	$729	$602
🏘️ Family rent	$1362	$1527
🍽️ Food expenses	$467	$293
🚐 Transport expenses	$142	$116
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$3112	$1905
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	10 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	65	100
😀 Quality of life	89	79
🏙️ Population	563K	24.9M

The cost of living in Dresden is 29% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 3857th and 4780th ($1462 vs $1136) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 506th and 6th in Germany and China, respectively. Check Germany vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 2.1 months in Dresden compared to 1.7 months in Shanghai. Dresden ranked 30th best city to live in Germany vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 203rd and 571st among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Dresden vs Shanghai infographic

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Prices in Dresden vs Shanghai

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

	Dresden	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$12	$3.99
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$54.8	$42.8
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$10.2	$5.51
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$4.46	$1.43
☕ Cappuccino	$3.54	$3.61
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$3.46	$0.53
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$710	$897
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$466	$461
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1354	$2549
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$981	$1181
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$171	$36.3
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$263	$56.1
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$43.4	$16.9
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	3.96%	4.28%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$5042	$16156
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$3939	$8893
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$3.35	$0.57
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$59.7	$36.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$22.4	$6.13
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.9	$1.19
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.18	$2.41
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.74	$1.99
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.34	$1.41
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.54	$2.11
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$14	$15.8
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$12.3	$3.46
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$18.4	$11.4
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.89	$2.33
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.65	$1.64
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.2	$2.05
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.89	$1.7
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.6	$0.98
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.65	$1.07
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.54	$0.37
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.74	$1.32
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$6.28	$11.2
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$0.9	$0.86
🚬 Cigarette pack	$8.4	$3.51
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$9.25	$6.62
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$2.42	$7.04
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.37	$1.72
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.59	$2.03
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$32.7	$55
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$12.7	$8.47
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$52.5	$90.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$15.1	$11.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$70	$58.2
👟 Brand Sneakers	$101	$78.6
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$297	$1263
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$12328	$31401

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Dresden

Distance	City	Cost of living
7.2 km or 4.5 mi	Freital	$1404
7.7 km or 4.8 mi	Radebeul	$1413
14 km or 8.9 mi	Coswig	$1386
17 km or 11 mi	Pirna	$1393
22 km or 14 mi	Meissen	$1354
32 km or 20 mi	Freiberg	$1215
42 km or 26 mi	Riesa	$1330
44 km or 28 mi	Decin	$1107
44 km or 28 mi	Dobeln	$1306
47 km or 29 mi	Teplice	$929
48 km or 30 mi	Usti nad Labem	$978
50 km or 31 mi	Bautzen	$1377
51 km or 31 mi	Litvinov	$1362
55 km or 34 mi	Senftenberg	$1390
56 km or 35 mi	Hoyerswerda	$1369
61 km or 38 mi	Most	$957
62 km or 39 mi	Chemnitz	$1228
64 km or 40 mi	Litomerice	$1103
69 km or 43 mi	Ceska Lipa	$1130
69 km or 43 mi	Chomutov	$1051
72 km or 45 mi	Limbach-Oberfrohna	$1261
73 km or 45 mi	Spremberg	$1349
73 km or 46 mi	Annaberg-Buchholz	$1261
74 km or 46 mi	Grimma	$1347
76 km or 47 mi	Torgau	$1345
77 km or 48 mi	Zittau	$1353
87 km or 54 mi	Glauchau	$1210
88 km or 55 mi	Gorlitz	$1364
89 km or 55 mi	Cottbus	$1261
92 km or 57 mi	Altenburg	$1273
95 km or 59 mi	Zwickau	$1095
98 km or 61 mi	Liberec	$1106
98 km or 61 mi	Markkleeberg	$1406
100 km or 62 mi	Leipzig	$1449
101 km or 63 mi	Werdau	$1191
104 km or 65 mi	Kladno	$1244
107 km or 66 mi	Jablonec nad Nisou	$1035
108 km or 67 mi	Mlada Boleslav	$1216
110 km or 68 mi	Karlovy Vary	$1024
111 km or 69 mi	Delitzsch	$1387

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1028
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$706
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$749
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$738
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$1020
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$585
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$661
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$718
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$620
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$676
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$686
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$706
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$685
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$612
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$733
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$674
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$742
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$702
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$729
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$674
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$843
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$665
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$676
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$690
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$629
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$698
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$630
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$673
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$698
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$538
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$650
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$651
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$703
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$708
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$699
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$617
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$702
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$771
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$648
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$774