Johannesburg vs Medan - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Johannesburg	Medan
🚶 Cost of living one person	$993	$481
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$2403	$1335
🏠 One person rent	$441	$187
🏘️ Family rent	$809	$394
🍽️ Food expenses	$288	$189
🚐 Transport expenses	$181	$35.6
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$1383	$262
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	12 km	12 km
🎓 Higher education	72	53
😀 Quality of life	57	44
🏙️ Population	4.43M	2.11M

The cost of living in Johannesburg is 106% more expensive than in Medan. Cities ranked 5539th and 8745th ($993 vs $481) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 4th and 47th in South Africa and Indonesia, respectively. Check South Africa vs Indonesia comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.4 months in Johannesburg compared to 0.5 months in Medan. Johannesburg ranked 2nd best city to live in South Africa vs Medan ranked 14th in Indonesia, while ranked 5667th and 6633rd among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Johannesburg vs Medan

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

	Johannesburg	Medan
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$9.65	$1.97
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$37.9	$12.8
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$4.9	$3.31
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.37	$2.39
☕ Cappuccino	$2.01	$2.24
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.99	$0.45
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$377	$174
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$318	$107
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$790	$469
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$627	$265
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$71.9	$40.4
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$110	$62.2
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$39.5	$26.1
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	11.55%	9.24%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1031	$1337
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$684	$614
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.62	$0.31
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$72	$8.02
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$9.35	$2.8
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.28	$0.79
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.18	$1.37
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.95	$1.14
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.36	$0.98
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.58	$1.55
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$10	$8.21
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.04	$3.56
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.12	$6.98
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.6	$2.38
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.49	$1.01
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.41	$1.5
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.59	$0.84
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.35	$0.75
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.44	$1.29
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.58	$0.31
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$1.44	$1.13
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$5.96	$15.6
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.25	$1.68
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.97	$2.26
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$5.59	$2.01
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.94	$2.41
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.88	$0.83
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.42	$0.77
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$33.2	$23
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$7.2	$3.48
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$27.8	$15.1
💇 Haircut, simple	$5.55	$2.73
👖 Brand Jeans	$48.5	$55.3
👟 Brand Sneakers	$88.8	$105
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$214	$124
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$5271	$10763

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

$349

$907

$6.64K

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Johannesburg

Distance	City	Cost of living
11 km or 6.8 mi	Sandton	$953
13 km or 8 mi	Randburg	$837
19 km or 12 mi	Soweto	$923
28 km or 17 mi	Benoni	$785
40 km or 25 mi	Springs	$678
41 km or 25 mi	Centurion	$807
53 km or 33 mi	Pretoria	$906
53 km or 33 mi	Vereeniging	$672
59 km or 36 mi	Vanderbijlpark	$773
71 km or 44 mi	Brits	$820
101 km or 62 mi	Rustenburg	$889
109 km or 68 mi	Potchefstroom	$695
143 km or 89 mi	Bethal	$784
152 km or 94 mi	Middelburg	$795
155 km or 97 mi	Klerksdorp	$722
179 km or 111 mi	Kroonstad	$768
237 km or 147 mi	Welkom	$748
244 km or 152 mi	Mmabatho	$780
262 km or 163 mi	Lobatse	$665
275 km or 171 mi	Gaborone	$691
287 km or 179 mi	Butha-Buthe	$535
302 km or 188 mi	Kanye	$664
311 km or 193 mi	Mbabane	$562
323 km or 201 mi	Vryheid	$763
325 km or 202 mi	Molepolole	$628
329 km or 204 mi	Teyateyaneng	$500
333 km or 207 mi	Manzini	$442
350 km or 217 mi	Maseru	$621
366 km or 228 mi	Mahalapye	$631
369 km or 229 mi	Bloemfontein	$657
409 km or 254 mi	Mafeteng	$567
417 km or 259 mi	Palapye	$540
429 km or 267 mi	Kimberley	$814
442 km or 275 mi	Pietermaritzburg	$640
443 km or 275 mi	Matola	$964
446 km or 277 mi	Serowe	$583
454 km or 282 mi	Maputo	$1068
501 km or 311 mi	Durban	$809
562 km or 349 mi	Francistown	$624
577 km or 358 mi	Xai-Xai	$1003

Cities near Medan

Distance	City	Cost of living
21 km or 13 mi	Binjai	$470
67 km or 41 mi	Tebing Tinggi	$474
90 km or 56 mi	Pematangsiantar	$486
119 km or 74 mi	Langsa	$461
148 km or 92 mi	Tanjungbalai	$503
238 km or 148 mi	Lhokseumawe	$435
264 km or 164 mi	Teluk Intan	$631
264 km or 164 mi	Taiping	$695
264 km or 164 mi	Padangsidempuan	$582
268 km or 166 mi	George Town	$620
269 km or 167 mi	Butterworth	$619
286 km or 178 mi	Ipoh	$628
298 km or 185 mi	Sungai Petani	$605
307 km or 191 mi	Gunungsitoli	$571
317 km or 197 mi	Klang	$670
322 km or 200 mi	Ko Lipe	$719
324 km or 201 mi	Langkawi	$560
325 km or 202 mi	Shah Alam	$645
331 km or 206 mi	Alor Setar	$490
332 km or 206 mi	Subang Jaya	$714
332 km or 206 mi	Petaling Jaya	$701
341 km or 212 mi	Kuala Lumpur	$810
342 km or 212 mi	Cyberjaya	$585
345 km or 215 mi	Putrajaya	$532
352 km or 219 mi	Kangar	$536
378 km or 235 mi	Seremban	$604
381 km or 237 mi	Dumai	$543
422 km or 262 mi	Hat Yai	$570
426 km or 265 mi	Banda Aceh	$398
431 km or 268 mi	Malacca	$669
445 km or 277 mi	Ko Lanta	$772
466 km or 289 mi	Pekanbaru	$542
468 km or 291 mi	Muar	$682
470 km or 292 mi	Phuket	$940
483 km or 300 mi	Kota Bharu	$485
487 km or 303 mi	Ao Nang	$792
489 km or 304 mi	Krabi	$782
515 km or 320 mi	Batu Pahat	$703
518 km or 322 mi	Kuantan	$529
529 km or 329 mi	Kuala Terengganu	$501