Ottawa vs Shenzhen - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 11, 2026

	Ottawa	Shenzhen
🚶 Cost of living one person	$2133	$939
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$4730	$2444
🏠 One person rent	$1249	$507
🏘️ Family rent	$1952	$900
🍽️ Food expenses	$587	$261
🚐 Transport expenses	$172	$83.8
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$3871	$1024
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	6 km	11 km
🎓 Higher education	49	95
😀 Quality of life	92	77
🏙️ Population	1.02M	17.5M

The cost of living in Ottawa is 127% more expensive than in Shenzhen. Cities ranked 1668th and 6106th ($2133 vs $939) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 27th and 12th in Canada and China, respectively. Check Canada vs China comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.8 months in Ottawa compared to 1.1 months in Shenzhen. Ottawa ranked 10th best city to live in Canada vs Shenzhen ranked 3rd in China, while ranked 123rd and 1113th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Ottawa vs Shenzhen

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

	Ottawa	Shenzhen
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$16.4	$3.57
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$62.9	$28.6
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$11	$4.49
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$5.87	$1.45
☕ Cappuccino	$4.25	$3.3
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$2.1	$0.51
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1328	$652
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1047	$403
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2126	$1182
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1662	$735
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$96.9	$41.3
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$148	$63.2
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$48.9	$12.5
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	4.48%	3.65%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$4318	$13180
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$3670	$5913
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$2.99	$0.43
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$99.5	$21.7
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$15.9	$4.54
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1	$1.14
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$2.18	$1.75
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$2.68	$1.86
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.89	$1.17
🥚 Eggs, x12	$3.59	$1.86
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13	$14.3
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.2	$3.7
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$16.8	$13.7
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.13	$1.99
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.37	$1.44
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.85	$1.61
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4	$1.26
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.57	$1.01
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.08	$1.36
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.05	$0.4
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.84	$1.13
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$11.9	$13.3
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.74	$0.94
🚬 Cigarette pack	$13.8	$3.7
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$12.8	$5.47
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.26	$7.02
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$1.99	$1.71
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.04	$2
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$44.4	$49.9
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$11	$7.18
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$68.3	$34.1
💇 Haircut, simple	$16.7	$10.3
👖 Brand Jeans	$56.4	$46.5
👟 Brand Sneakers	$89.3	$73.4
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$882	$510
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$17337	$22916

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Ottawa

Distance	City	Cost of living
7.4 km or 4.6 mi	Gatineau	$1866
19 km or 12 mi	Kanata	$2229
87 km or 54 mi	Cornwall	$1703
94 km or 58 mi	Brockville	$1868
124 km or 77 mi	Salaberry-de-Valleyfield	$1971
128 km or 80 mi	Mirabel	$1896
130 km or 81 mi	Vaudreuil-Dorion	$1924
138 km or 86 mi	Saint-Jerome	$1864
141 km or 87 mi	Saint-Eustache	$1948
143 km or 89 mi	Kirkland	$1930
144 km or 89 mi	Blainville	$1935
146 km or 90 mi	Sainte-Therese	$1950
147 km or 91 mi	Pointe-Claire	$1920
147 km or 91 mi	Boisbriand	$1934
147 km or 91 mi	Dollard-des-Ormeaux	$1944
147 km or 91 mi	Kingston	$1476
150 km or 93 mi	Le Ray	$1927
152 km or 94 mi	Dorval	$1923
152 km or 94 mi	Chateauguay	$1914
153 km or 95 mi	Laval	$2047
157 km or 98 mi	Saint-Lin-Laurentides	$1800
158 km or 98 mi	Cote-Saint-Luc	$1893
160 km or 100 mi	Mount Royal	$1876
162 km or 101 mi	Watertown	$1733
163 km or 102 mi	Terrebonne	$1907
163 km or 102 mi	Westmount	$1862
166 km or 103 mi	Saint-Constant	$1910
167 km or 104 mi	Montreal	$1928
167 km or 104 mi	Mascouche	$1852
170 km or 106 mi	Saint-Lambert	$1875
170 km or 106 mi	Candiac	$1940
170 km or 106 mi	Longueuil	$1923
171 km or 106 mi	La Prairie	$1960
175 km or 109 mi	Brossard	$2080
176 km or 109 mi	Boucherville	$1897
177 km or 110 mi	Repentigny	$1846
178 km or 111 mi	Varennes	$1861
183 km or 114 mi	L'Assomption	$1723
183 km or 114 mi	Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville	$1918
185 km or 115 mi	Sainte-Julie	$1891

Cities near Shenzhen

Distance	City	Cost of living
28 km or 17 mi	Kowloon	$2415
30 km or 19 mi	Hong Kong	$2674
58 km or 36 mi	Zhuhai	$674
65 km or 40 mi	Dongguan	$666
66 km or 41 mi	Macau	$1718
72 km or 45 mi	Zhongshan	$534
74 km or 46 mi	Huizhou	$621
100 km or 62 mi	Jiangmen	$848
105 km or 65 mi	Guangzhou	$782
112 km or 69 mi	Foshan	$611
134 km or 83 mi	Shanwei	$943
142 km or 88 mi	Kaiping	$844
150 km or 93 mi	Heyuan	$765
164 km or 102 mi	Qingyuan	$795
174 km or 108 mi	Zhaoqing	$807
212 km or 131 mi	Yunfu	$832
228 km or 142 mi	Yangjiang	$896
233 km or 145 mi	Puning	$589
256 km or 159 mi	Shaoguan	$807
262 km or 163 mi	Jieyang	$464
286 km or 178 mi	Shantou	$602
288 km or 179 mi	Meizhou	$673
292 km or 182 mi	Chaozhou	$465
299 km or 186 mi	Wuzhou	$816
303 km or 188 mi	Lianzhou	$760
330 km or 205 mi	Hezhou	$769
337 km or 209 mi	Gaozhou	$790
337 km or 210 mi	Maoming	$789
377 km or 234 mi	Ganzhou	$814
378 km or 235 mi	Chenzhou	$730
401 km or 249 mi	Yulin	$738
405 km or 252 mi	Zhanjiang	$805
415 km or 258 mi	Longyan	$698
428 km or 266 mi	Zhangzhou	$696
460 km or 286 mi	Guigang	$699
464 km or 288 mi	Xiamen	$723
477 km or 297 mi	Haikou	$694
485 km or 301 mi	Kinmen	$903
489 km or 304 mi	Guilin	$533
502 km or 312 mi	Yongzhou	$638