Riyadh vs Sofia - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: March 02, 2025

	Riyadh	Sofia
🚶 Cost of living one person	$1637	$1037
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$3629	$2570
🏠 One person rent	$944	$499
🏘️ Family rent	$1530	$871
🍽️ Food expenses	$375	$357
🚐 Transport expenses	$183	$79.9
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$2731	$1394
😷 Air quality	Moderate	Good
✈️ Airport proximity	9 km	8 km
🎓 Higher education	72	70
😀 Quality of life	78	78
🏙️ Population	7.01M	1.4M

The cost of living in Riyadh is 58% more expensive than in Sofia. Cities ranked 2911th and 5261st ($1637 vs $1037) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 1st and 1st in Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria, respectively. Check Saudi Arabia vs Bulgaria comparison.

The average after-tax salary is enough to cover living expenses for 1.7 months in Riyadh compared to 1.3 months in Sofia. Riyadh ranked 1st best city to live in Saudi Arabia vs Sofia ranked 1st in Bulgaria, while ranked 733rd and 723rd among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in Riyadh vs Sofia

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

	Riyadh	Sofia
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$9.31	$9.19
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$53.6	$42.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$8.02	$8.07
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.88	$2.53
☕ Cappuccino	$4.16	$2.48
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$0.76	$1.59
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$1001	$500
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$748	$376
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$2174	$979
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$1140	$663
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$69.4	$85.5
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$107	$132
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$75.4	$12.5
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	5.42%	3.16%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$2485	$3192
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$1703	$2153
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$1.07	$0.87
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$37.2	$25.7
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$18.4	$7.59
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$0.61	$1.41
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.71	$1.75
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$1.28	$0.94
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.33	$1.52
🥚 Eggs, x12	$2.75	$3.7
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$8.14	$11
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$9.75	$8.43
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.5	$12
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.3	$1.6
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.7	$1.81
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.86	$1.83
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.58	$2.44
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.36	$1.1
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.53	$0.98
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$0.37	$0.42
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$2.14	$1.46
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$8.71	$7.58
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$1.72	$1.04
🚬 Cigarette pack	$7.19	$3.69
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$2.8	$9.3
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$4.03	$3.11
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$2.23	$1.88
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$5.22	$2.55
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$102	$33.8
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$16	$7.97
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$52.2	$39.9
💇 Haircut, simple	$7.23	$10.4
👖 Brand Jeans	$55.2	$61.1
👟 Brand Sneakers	$107	$99.2
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$404	$538
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$10598	$6749

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 Sofia

Distance	City	Cost of living
26 km or 16 mi	Pernik	$682
59 km or 37 mi	Vratsa	$687
77 km or 48 mi	Blagoevgrad	$576
97 km or 60 mi	Bansko	$866
100 km or 62 mi	Pazardzhik	$667
132 km or 82 mi	Pleven	$594
132 km or 82 mi	Plovdiv	$734
135 km or 84 mi	Nis	$711
142 km or 88 mi	Stip	$561
146 km or 91 mi	Kumanovo	$588
148 km or 92 mi	Vidin	$605
149 km or 92 mi	Asenovgrad	$616
151 km or 94 mi	Strumica	$612
164 km or 102 mi	Gabrovo	$598
168 km or 104 mi	Veles	$545
175 km or 108 mi	Skopje	$772
176 km or 110 mi	Pristina	$595
178 km or 110 mi	Kavadarci	$556
180 km or 112 mi	Serres	$988
185 km or 115 mi	Drama	$891
186 km or 116 mi	Craiova	$848
191 km or 119 mi	Stara Zagora	$646
193 km or 120 mi	Veliko Tarnovo	$731
202 km or 125 mi	Mitrovica	$463
202 km or 126 mi	Haskovo	$619
208 km or 129 mi	Tetovo	$682
210 km or 130 mi	Prilep	$537
210 km or 131 mi	Slatina	$623
215 km or 134 mi	Kavala	$930
215 km or 134 mi	Alexandria	$629
217 km or 135 mi	Xanthi	$948
222 km or 138 mi	Drobeta-Turnu Severin	$663
224 km or 139 mi	Giannitsa	$1028
232 km or 144 mi	Thessaloniki	$1106
234 km or 145 mi	Novi Pazar	$662
242 km or 150 mi	Kragujevac	$807
245 km or 152 mi	Sliven	$631
246 km or 153 mi	Komotini	$899
248 km or 154 mi	Bitola	$635
248 km or 154 mi	Ruse	$633