New York City vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 10, 2024

	New York City	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$4051	$1136
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$8925	$3654
🏠 One person rent	$2620	$602
🏘️ Family rent	$4454	$1527
🍽️ Food expenses	$807	$293
🚐 Transport expenses	$399	$116
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$5777	$1905
😷 Air quality	Good	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	13 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	100	100
😀 Quality of life	97	79
🏙️ Population	8.8M	24.9M

The cost of living in New York City is 257% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 5th and 4780th ($4051 vs $1136) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 3rd and 6th in the United States and China, respectively. Check the United States vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.4 months in New York City compared to 1.7 months in Shanghai. New York City ranked 2nd best city to live in the United States vs Shanghai ranked 4th in China, while ranked 13th and 571st among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in New York City vs Shanghai

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

	New York City	Shanghai
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$24.7	$3.99
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$111	$42.8
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$12.6	$5.51
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$9.78	$1.43
☕ Cappuccino	$6.22	$3.61
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$3.16	$0.53
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$2702	$897
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$2361	$461
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$5005	$2549
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$3996	$1181
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$122	$36.3
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$187	$56.1
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$69.3	$16.9
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	6.73%	4.28%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$19111	$16156
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$3215	$8893
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$2.88	$0.57
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$138	$36.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$27.1	$6.13
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.02	$1.19
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.39	$2.41
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$4.43	$1.99
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.1	$1.41
🥚 Eggs, x12	$5.36	$2.11
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$16.6	$15.8
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.7	$3.46
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$19.2	$11.4
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.78	$2.33
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.13	$1.64
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.75	$2.05
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.74	$1.7
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.22	$0.98
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.62	$1.07
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.57	$0.37
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.88	$1.32
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$20.1	$11.2
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$3.49	$0.86
🚬 Cigarette pack	$17.1	$3.51
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$10.5	$6.62
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$10	$7.04
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$7.97	$1.72
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.36	$2.03
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$144	$55
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$19.8	$8.47
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$156	$90.7
💇 Haircut, simple	$25.4	$11.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$65.6	$58.2
👟 Brand Sneakers	$111	$78.6
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$1717	$1263
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$20585	$31401

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near New York City

Distance	City	Cost of living
11 km or 6.6 mi	Astoria	$2510
11 km or 6.8 mi	Hoboken	$3280
11 km or 7.1 mi	Jersey	$3002
13 km or 8.3 mi	Union	$2857
14 km or 8.8 mi	West New York	$2634
14 km or 8.9 mi	Bayonne	$3168
15 km or 9.6 mi	North Bergen	$2611
17 km or 10 mi	Secaucus	$2701
17 km or 11 mi	Cliffside Park	$2414
18 km or 11 mi	Kearny	$2671
20 km or 12 mi	Valley Stream	$2715
20 km or 13 mi	Fort Lee	$2165
20 km or 13 mi	Lyndhurst	$2605
22 km or 14 mi	Newark	$2575
23 km or 14 mi	Elizabeth	$2733
23 km or 14 mi	Belleville	$2479
25 km or 15 mi	Hillside	$2664
25 km or 15 mi	Long Beach	$2722
25 km or 15 mi	Nutley	$2493
25 km or 16 mi	East Orange	$2635
25 km or 16 mi	Irvington	$2622
26 km or 16 mi	Rockville Centre	$2607
26 km or 16 mi	Linden	$2762
26 km or 16 mi	Hackensack	$2590
26 km or 16 mi	Bloomfield	$2424
26 km or 16 mi	Teaneck	$2641
26 km or 16 mi	Carteret	$2778
26 km or 16 mi	Passaic	$2646
27 km or 17 mi	Roselle	$2760
27 km or 17 mi	Hempstead	$2702
28 km or 17 mi	Union Township	$2732
28 km or 18 mi	Clifton	$2721
28 km or 18 mi	Maplewood	$2691
29 km or 18 mi	Montclair	$2454
29 km or 18 mi	Bergenfield	$2586
29 km or 18 mi	Mount Vernon	$2811
30 km or 18 mi	Rahway	$2771
30 km or 18 mi	Uniondale	$2578
30 km or 18 mi	West Orange	$2553
30 km or 18 mi	New Rochelle	$3108

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