Riyadh vs San Diego - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Riyadh	San Diego
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1637	$3428
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3629	$7974
🏠 One person rent	$944	$2311
🏘️ Family rent	$1530	$4175
🍽️ Food expenses	$375	$743
🚐 Transport expenses	$183	$180
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$2731	$5531
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Excellent
✈️ Airport proximity	9 km	3 km
🎓 Higher education	72	87
😀 Quality of life	78	91
🏙️ Population	7.01M	1.39M

The cost of living in Riyadh is 52% less expensive than in San Diego. Cities ranked 2911th and 36th ($1637 vs $3428) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 32nd in Saudi Arabia and the United States, respectively. Check Saudi Arabia vs the United States comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.7 months in Riyadh compared to 1.6 months in San Diego. Riyadh ranked 1st best city to live in Saudi Arabia vs San Diego ranked 13th in the United States, while ranked 733rd and 95th among best cities to live in the world.

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Cost of living in Riyadh vs San Diego infographic

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<img src="https://livingcost.org/assets/photo/cost/riyadh/san-diego.jpg" alt="Cost of living in Riyadh vs San Diego infographic" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto;"><p>Source: <a href="https://livingcost.org/cost/riyadh/san-diego" target="_blank">Riyadh vs San Diego - Cost of Living Comparison</a></p>

Prices in Riyadh vs San Diego

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

	Riyadh	San Diego
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$9.31	$22.1
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$53.6	$83.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$8.02	$15
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.88	$8.3
☕ Cappuccino	$4.16	$6.04
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.76	$2.96
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1001	$2424
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$748	$1978
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2174	$4583
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1140	$3654
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$69.4	$177
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$107	$269
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$75.4	$66.3
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	5.42%	6.42%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2485	$9086
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1703	$7072
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.07	$2.51
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$37.2	$72.1
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$18.4	$19.4
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$0.61	$1.33
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.71	$1.23
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.28	$3.95
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.33	$4.13
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.75	$5.2
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.14	$15.6
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.75	$13.3
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.5	$18.4
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.3	$4.75
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.7	$1.71
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.86	$4.32
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.58	$4.97
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.36	$2.75
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$2.44
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.37	$1.69
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.14	$3.7
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$8.71	$17.6
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.72	$2.85
🚬 Cigarette pack	$7.19	$12.1
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$2.8	$17.4
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.03	$13.1
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.23	$5.87
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$5.22	$2.99
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$102	$75
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$16	$17
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$52.2	$130
💇 Haircut, simple	$7.23	$31.9
👖 Brand Jeans	$55.2	$59.6
👟 Brand Sneakers	$107	$98.3
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$404	$1785
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$10598	$28706

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

$349

$907

$6.64K

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near Riyadh

Distance	City	Cost of living
310 km or 193 mi	Al-Mubarraz	$804
316 km or 196 mi	Unaizah	$969
350 km or 217 mi	Ar Rass	$861
389 km or 242 mi	Dhahran	$1068
394 km or 245 mi	Dammam	$1056
395 km or 245 mi	Jubail	$901
417 km or 259 mi	Qatif	$897
420 km or 261 mi	Riffa	$1223
421 km or 262 mi	Isa Town	$1243
426 km or 265 mi	Manama	$1280
460 km or 286 mi	Al Wafrah	$1210
480 km or 298 mi	As Sulayyil	$1041
491 km or 305 mi	Doha	$1779
496 km or 308 mi	Al Khor	$1709
540 km or 336 mi	Kuwait City	$1393
595 km or 369 mi	Ha'il	$846
611 km or 379 mi	Umm Qasr	$740
618 km or 384 mi	Al-Faw	$736
631 km or 392 mi	Bushehr	$551
646 km or 401 mi	Az Zubayr	$723
652 km or 405 mi	Abadan	$547
658 km or 409 mi	Basra	$904
659 km or 410 mi	Khorramshahr	$544
668 km or 415 mi	Bisha	$905
680 km or 423 mi	Borazjan	$546
701 km or 436 mi	Bandar-e Mahshahr	$548
713 km or 443 mi	Madinat Zayed	$1721
714 km or 443 mi	Nasiriyah	$672
719 km or 447 mi	Medina	$1215
737 km or 458 mi	Kazerun	$557
747 km or 464 mi	Behbahan	$536
754 km or 469 mi	Samawah	$582
766 km or 476 mi	Ahvaz	$597
775 km or 481 mi	Abu Dhabi	$1828
790 km or 491 mi	Mecca	$979
798 km or 496 mi	Shiraz	$589
800 km or 497 mi	Amarah	$683
804 km or 499 mi	Bareq	$902
804 km or 500 mi	Jahrom	$547
823 km or 511 mi	Yasuj	$529

Cities near San Diego

Distance	City	Cost of living
4.2 km or 2.6 mi	Coronado	$3065
7.2 km or 4.5 mi	National	$2962
13 km or 7.8 mi	Lemon Grove	$2914
14 km or 9 mi	Chula Vista	$3017
14 km or 9 mi	La Mesa	$2916
16 km or 9.8 mi	Imperial Beach	$2911
18 km or 11 mi	La Jolla	$2964
21 km or 13 mi	El Cajon	$3043
24 km or 15 mi	Tijuana	$1047
25 km or 15 mi	Santee	$2898
30 km or 19 mi	Poway	$2930
38 km or 24 mi	Encinitas	$3124
40 km or 25 mi	Las Delicias	$912
43 km or 26 mi	Rosarito Beach	$910
46 km or 29 mi	Escondido	$3279
47 km or 30 mi	San Marcos	$2917
52 km or 33 mi	Carlsbad	$3273
54 km or 33 mi	Vista	$2834
57 km or 36 mi	Oceanside	$3199
73 km or 46 mi	Fallbrook	$2907
88 km or 55 mi	Temecula	$2637
91 km or 57 mi	San Clemente	$2945
95 km or 59 mi	Murrieta	$3109
97 km or 61 mi	Dana Point	$2936
98 km or 61 mi	French Valley	$2732
99 km or 61 mi	San Juan Capistrano	$2950
99 km or 61 mi	Wildomar	$2763
104 km or 65 mi	Laguna Niguel	$3188
107 km or 66 mi	Laguna Beach	$2996
107 km or 67 mi	Menifee	$2578
109 km or 68 mi	Ensenada	$880
109 km or 68 mi	Lake Elsinore	$2694
110 km or 68 mi	Mission Viejo	$3496
110 km or 69 mi	Laguna Hills	$3082
111 km or 69 mi	Rancho Santa Margarita	$2971
114 km or 71 mi	Aliso Viejo	$3326
114 km or 71 mi	Lake Forest	$3020
115 km or 72 mi	Hemet	$2764
119 km or 74 mi	Perris	$2682
119 km or 74 mi	Temescal Valley	$2759