Kabul vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 01, 2024

	Kabul	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$567	$1190
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$1181	$3757
🏠 One person rent	$276	$635
🏘️ Family rent	$383	$1613
🍽️ Food expenses	$168	$308
🚐 Transport expenses	$88.9	$117
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$175	$1455
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	6 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	29	100
😀 Quality of life	21	78
🏙️ Population	4.27M	24.9M

The cost of living in Kabul is 52% less expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 7972nd and 4461st ($567 vs $1190) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 6th in Afghanistan and China, respectively. Check Afghanistan vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 0.3 months in Kabul compared to 1.2 months in Shanghai. Kabul ranked 1st best city to live in Afghanistan vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 8953rd and 558th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Kabul vs Shanghai

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

	Kabul	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$2.48	$4.9
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$10.7	$40.7
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$5.27	$5.69
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$4.97	$1.7
☕ Cappuccino	$1.75	$3.83
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.38	$0.55
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$173	$901
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$114	$497
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$295	$2595
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$182	$1269
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$51.8	$39.1
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$79.7	$60.5
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$99	$17.9
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	14.25%	4.77%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$424	$17366
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$259	$9346
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$0.34	$0.56
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$18.2	$37.3
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$8.36	$6
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$0.92	$1.19
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.81	$2.55
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$0.3	$2.02
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.25	$1.47
🥚 Eggs, x12	$1.4	$2.21
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.87	$18.3
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.86	$4.12
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.19	$12.8
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.68	$2.27
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.79	$1.65
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.83	$1.97
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.55	$1.52
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.34	$0.96
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$0.3	$1.04
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.23	$0.39
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$0.94	$1.25
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$9.24	$14.7
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.49	$0.9
🚬 Cigarette pack	$2.38	$3.45
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$2.23	$6.43
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$3.67	$7.06
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.03	$1.68
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$1.8	$2
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$11.8	$69.1
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$2.21	$8.16
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$13.5	$89.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$2.99	$12
👖 Brand Jeans	$14.2	$66.7
👟 Brand Sneakers	$41.8	$78.5
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$22.2	$1283
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$1370	$28143

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Kabul

Distance	City	Cost of living
105 km or 65 mi	Gardez	$449
119 km or 74 mi	Jalalabad	$347
129 km or 80 mi	Ghazni	$455
150 km or 93 mi	Khost	$423
163 km or 101 mi	Puli Khumri	$437
223 km or 138 mi	Peshawar	$352
235 km or 146 mi	Kohat	$307
246 km or 153 mi	Kunduz	$445
266 km or 166 mi	Mardan	$335
293 km or 182 mi	Mingora	$311
304 km or 189 mi	Mazar-i-Sharif	$449
336 km or 209 mi	Wah	$238
368 km or 229 mi	Islamabad	$389
369 km or 229 mi	Qurghonteppa	$632
374 km or 232 mi	Rawalpindi	$331
389 km or 242 mi	Sheberghan	$446
425 km or 264 mi	Sargodha	$330
450 km or 280 mi	Tursunzoda	$629
451 km or 280 mi	Dushanbe	$638
451 km or 280 mi	Mirpur	$278
456 km or 284 mi	Mandi Bahauddin	$287
458 km or 285 mi	Kandahar	$513
467 km or 290 mi	Jhang	$364
474 km or 294 mi	Chiniot	$344
476 km or 296 mi	Baramulla	$281
499 km or 310 mi	Gojra	$337
501 km or 312 mi	Hafizabad	$303
503 km or 313 mi	Faisalabad	$289
505 km or 314 mi	Gujrat	$277
517 km or 321 mi	Dera Ghazi Khan	$242
520 km or 323 mi	Srinagar	$393
523 km or 325 mi	Quetta	$313
526 km or 327 mi	Multan	$307
534 km or 332 mi	Sahiwal	$260
536 km or 333 mi	Gujranwala	$240
538 km or 334 mi	Khanewal	$328
546 km or 340 mi	Sialkot	$298
549 km or 341 mi	Sheikhupura	$337
550 km or 342 mi	Kamoke	$268
553 km or 344 mi	Lashkargah	$484

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1074
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$731
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$771
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$763
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$1020
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$596
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$682
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$731
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$651
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$678
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$687
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$699
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$688
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$690
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$677
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$675
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$755
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$707
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$713
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$682
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$831
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$665
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$679
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$694
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$625
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$707
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$625
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$651
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$703
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$524
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$631
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$645
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$720
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$725
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$696
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$617
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$719
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$789
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$652
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$740