Hamilton vs Ottawa - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Hamilton	Ottawa
🚶 Cost of living one person	$2017	$2055
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$4455	$4624
🏠 One person rent	$1247	$1212
🏘️ Family rent	$2030	$1940
🍽️ Food expenses	$542	$563
🚐 Transport expenses	$120	$162
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$2780	$3115
😷 Air quality	Good	Excellent
✈️ Airport proximity	11 km	5 km
🎓 Higher education	73	50
😀 Quality of life	88	90
🏙️ Population	569K	1.02M

The cost of living in Hamilton is 2% less expensive than in Ottawa. Cities ranked 1784th and 1701st ($2017 vs $2055) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 31st and 25th in Canada.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.4 months in Hamilton compared to 1.5 months in Ottawa. Ranked 18th vs 9th best cities to live in Canada, and 239th vs 162nd among the best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Cost of living in Hamilton vs Ottawa 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/hamilton/ottawa.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Hamilton vs Ottawa infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/hamilton/ottawa" target="_blank">Hamilton vs Ottawa - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Hamilton vs Ottawa

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

	Hamilton	Ottawa
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$18.8	$16
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$70.4	$65.6
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$10.5	$10.6
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$5.66	$5.54
☕ Cappuccino	$3.71	$3.82
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2	$1.97
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1156	$1214
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1072	$1014
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1990	$2032
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1768	$1649
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$107	$109
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$166	$165
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$51.1	$49.7
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	6.79%	6.14%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$16293	$4939
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$4716	$4597
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$2.39	$2.82
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$84	$92
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$13.5	$15
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.06	$1.07
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$2	$2.38
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.04	$2.62
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.58	$2.98
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.08	$3.53
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$7.74	$13.9
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$10.4	$12.7
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.7	$14.8
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.58	$4.03
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.23	$1.31
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.38	$3.49
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.63	$3.8
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.54	$2.55
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.06	$2.95
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.27	$1.03
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.1	$2.38
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$12.7	$13.3
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.36	$2.47
🚬 Cigarette pack	$13.4	$12.3
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$6.97	$9.31
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.22	$4.15
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.42	$1.95
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.58	$1.46
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$25	$41.1
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$10.6	$10.5
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$44.8	$58.8
💇 Haircut, simple	$16.7	$15.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$53.9	$53.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$89.8	$88.5
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$605	$942
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$21263	$19030

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Hamilton

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.9 mi	Burlington	$2185
26 km or 16 mi	Oakville	$2142
32 km or 20 mi	Brantford	$1783
38 km or 23 mi	Cambridge	$2089
42 km or 26 mi	Mississauga	$2370
42 km or 26 mi	Halton Hills	$1966
45 km or 28 mi	Guelph	$1899
48 km or 30 mi	Brampton	$1946
52 km or 32 mi	St. Catharines	$1846
54 km or 34 mi	Kitchener	$2056
57 km or 36 mi	Waterloo	$1977
60 km or 37 mi	Welland	$1554
60 km or 37 mi	Toronto	$2453
67 km or 42 mi	Niagara Falls	$1771
71 km or 44 mi	Vaughan	$2267
71 km or 44 mi	Niagara Falls	$1888
76 km or 47 mi	Orangeville	$1861
78 km or 49 mi	Richmond Hill	$2447
79 km or 49 mi	Grand Island	$2009
85 km or 53 mi	North Tonawanda	$1992
86 km or 53 mi	Markham	$2291
90 km or 56 mi	Stratford	$1680
92 km or 57 mi	Buffalo	$2183
92 km or 57 mi	Amherst	$2013
92 km or 57 mi	New Tecumseth	$2019
95 km or 59 mi	Ajax	$2432
97 km or 60 mi	Lockport	$2021
98 km or 61 mi	West Seneca	$2145
99 km or 62 mi	Cheektowaga	$2107
100 km or 62 mi	Hamburg	$2101
107 km or 67 mi	Orchard Park	$2100
108 km or 67 mi	Lancaster	$2082
108 km or 67 mi	Clarence	$2056
109 km or 68 mi	Oshawa	$1554
116 km or 72 mi	London	$1936
127 km or 79 mi	Erie	$1840
127 km or 79 mi	Barrie	$1849
139 km or 86 mi	Jamestown	$2195
154 km or 96 mi	Orillia	$1910
169 km or 105 mi	Owen Sound	$1799

Cities near Ottawa

Distance	City	Cost of living
7.4 km or 4.6 mi	Gatineau	$1768
19 km or 12 mi	Kanata	$2202
87 km or 54 mi	Cornwall	$1633
94 km or 58 mi	Brockville	$1875
124 km or 77 mi	Salaberry-de-Valleyfield	$1894
128 km or 80 mi	Mirabel	$1762
130 km or 81 mi	Vaudreuil-Dorion	$1830
138 km or 86 mi	Saint-Jerome	$1733
141 km or 87 mi	Saint-Eustache	$1768
143 km or 89 mi	Kirkland	$1807
144 km or 89 mi	Blainville	$1761
146 km or 90 mi	Sainte-Therese	$1753
147 km or 91 mi	Pointe-Claire	$1819
147 km or 91 mi	Boisbriand	$1732
147 km or 91 mi	Dollard-des-Ormeaux	$1814
147 km or 91 mi	Kingston	$1704
150 km or 93 mi	Le Ray	$1814
152 km or 94 mi	Dorval	$1810
152 km or 94 mi	Chateauguay	$1841
153 km or 95 mi	Laval	$1900
157 km or 98 mi	Saint-Lin-Laurentides	$1690
158 km or 98 mi	Cote-Saint-Luc	$1803
160 km or 100 mi	Mount Royal	$1792
162 km or 101 mi	Watertown	$1658
163 km or 102 mi	Terrebonne	$1776
163 km or 102 mi	Westmount	$1773
166 km or 103 mi	Saint-Constant	$1824
167 km or 104 mi	Montreal	$1857
167 km or 104 mi	Mascouche	$1735
170 km or 106 mi	Saint-Lambert	$1790
170 km or 106 mi	Candiac	$1852
170 km or 106 mi	Longueuil	$1835
171 km or 106 mi	La Prairie	$1889
175 km or 109 mi	Brossard	$2004
176 km or 109 mi	Boucherville	$1804
177 km or 110 mi	Repentigny	$1743
178 km or 111 mi	Varennes	$1764
183 km or 114 mi	L'Assomption	$1651
183 km or 114 mi	Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville	$1836
185 km or 115 mi	Sainte-Julie	$1800