New York City vs Shanghai - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: June 21, 2026

	New York City	Shanghai
🚶 Cost of living one person	$4202	$1147
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$9189	$3146
🏠 One person rent	$2718	$636
🏘️ Family rent	$4417	$1119
🍽️ Food expenses	$842	$279
🚐 Transport expenses	$400	$105
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$5389	$1068
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	13 km	13 km
🎓 Higher education	100	99
😀 Quality of life	95	76
🏙️ Population	8.8M	24.9M

The cost of living in New York City is 266% more expensive than in Shanghai. Cities ranked 4th and 4880th ($4202 vs $1147) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 5th 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 1.3 months in New York City compared to 0.9 months in Shanghai. New York City ranked 2nd best city to live in the United States vs Shanghai ranked 5th in China, while ranked 15th and 1178th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

Share this picture

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	$22.6	$4.42
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$90	$30.3
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$13.4	$5.19
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$8.3	$1.44
☕ Cappuccino	$6.22	$3.21
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$3.28	$0.57
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$3692	$849
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$2206	$520
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$5140	$1495
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$3874	$937
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$144	$38.3
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$218	$59.3
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$70.6	$11.2
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	6.31%	3.19%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$18073	$14068
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$7831	$6729
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$3.01	$0.54
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$138	$29.4
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$27	$5.76
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.02	$1.23
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.44	$2.14
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$4.07	$1.81
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.67	$1.1
🥚 Eggs, x12	$6.75	$1.87
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$16.6	$16.7
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$14.6	$3.33
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$18.5	$13
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.3	$2.43
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.24	$1.87
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$5.79	$1.84
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$6.72	$1.75
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.21	$0.83
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.96	$0.94
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.67	$0.45
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$3.57	$1.31
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$19.7	$11.8
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$4.61	$0.9
🚬 Cigarette pack	$18.5	$2.95
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$23.4	$6.37
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$14	$7.05
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$8.02	$2.11
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.86	$2.24
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$132	$70.6
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$21.7	$8.79
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$159	$98.8
💇 Haircut, simple	$40.5	$12
👖 Brand Jeans	$61.1	$46.1
👟 Brand Sneakers	$115	$71.7
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$2095	$1268
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$21713	$27610

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	$2940
11 km or 6.8 mi	Hoboken	$3729
11 km or 7.1 mi	Jersey	$3110
13 km or 8.3 mi	Union	$3145
14 km or 8.8 mi	West New York	$2842
14 km or 8.9 mi	Bayonne	$3304
15 km or 9.6 mi	North Bergen	$2840
17 km or 10 mi	Secaucus	$2917
17 km or 11 mi	Cliffside Park	$2795
18 km or 11 mi	Kearny	$2791
20 km or 12 mi	Valley Stream	$2820
20 km or 13 mi	Fort Lee	$2821
20 km or 13 mi	Lyndhurst	$2707
22 km or 14 mi	Newark	$2797
23 km or 14 mi	Elizabeth	$2805
23 km or 14 mi	Belleville	$2545
25 km or 15 mi	Hillside	$2725
25 km or 15 mi	Long Beach	$2823
25 km or 15 mi	Nutley	$2540
25 km or 16 mi	East Orange	$2557
25 km or 16 mi	Irvington	$2665
26 km or 16 mi	Rockville Centre	$2700
26 km or 16 mi	Linden	$2791
26 km or 16 mi	Hackensack	$2692
26 km or 16 mi	Bloomfield	$2485
26 km or 16 mi	Teaneck	$2697
26 km or 16 mi	Carteret	$2775
26 km or 16 mi	Passaic	$2614
27 km or 17 mi	Roselle	$2779
27 km or 17 mi	Hempstead	$2710
28 km or 17 mi	Union Township	$2729
28 km or 18 mi	Clifton	$2669
28 km or 18 mi	Maplewood	$2634
29 km or 18 mi	Montclair	$2450
29 km or 18 mi	Bergenfield	$2713
29 km or 18 mi	Mount Vernon	$2863
30 km or 18 mi	Rahway	$2762
30 km or 18 mi	Uniondale	$2694
30 km or 18 mi	West Orange	$2488
30 km or 18 mi	New Rochelle	$3192

Cities near Shanghai

Distance	City	Cost of living
9.4 km or 5.8 mi	Pudong	$1030
47 km or 29 mi	Taicang	$708
53 km or 33 mi	Kunshan	$726
74 km or 46 mi	Qidong	$725
82 km or 51 mi	Suzhou	$798
82 km or 51 mi	Jiaxing	$596
85 km or 53 mi	Haimen	$643
88 km or 55 mi	Changshu	$678
106 km or 66 mi	Nantong	$581
117 km or 73 mi	Zhangjiagang	$652
121 km or 75 mi	Wuxi	$686
135 km or 84 mi	Huzhou	$680
141 km or 87 mi	Jiangyin	$658
142 km or 88 mi	Zhoushan	$571
144 km or 89 mi	Ningbo	$660
148 km or 92 mi	Jingjiang	$645
155 km or 96 mi	Shaoxing	$670
158 km or 98 mi	Yixing	$663
159 km or 99 mi	Changzhou	$636
160 km or 100 mi	Rugao	$659
161 km or 100 mi	Hangzhou	$899
177 km or 110 mi	Taixing	$651
179 km or 111 mi	Hai'an	$664
191 km or 119 mi	Liyang	$657
197 km or 122 mi	Yangzhong	$627
198 km or 123 mi	Guangde	$667
201 km or 125 mi	Danyang	$623
208 km or 129 mi	Taizhou	$693
217 km or 135 mi	Dongtai	$691
223 km or 139 mi	Zhenjiang	$538
235 km or 146 mi	Yangzhou	$623
236 km or 146 mi	Jurong	$644
244 km or 152 mi	Ningguo	$661
246 km or 153 mi	Yiwu	$696
250 km or 155 mi	Xinghua	$693
250 km or 156 mi	Yizheng	$620
259 km or 161 mi	Linhai	$677
260 km or 161 mi	Xuancheng	$684
262 km or 163 mi	Gaoyou	$644
274 km or 170 mi	Nanjing	$789