San Diego vs Shenzhen - Cost of Living Comparison

Updated: October 14, 2025

	San Diego	Shenzhen
🚶 Cost of living one person	$3469	$878
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Cost of living Family	$7890	$2307
🏠 One person rent	$2370	$456
🏘️ Family rent	$4148	$808
🍽️ Food expenses	$726	$253
🚐 Transport expenses	$179	$83.4
💳 Monthly salary after tax	$5254	$969
😷 Air quality	Excellent	Moderate
✈️ Airport proximity	3 km	11 km
🎓 Higher education	86	96
😀 Quality of life	93	78
🏙️ Population	1.39M	17.5M

The cost of living in San Diego is 295% more expensive than in Shenzhen. Cities ranked 43rd and 6334th ($3469 vs $878) in the list of the most expensive cities in the world and ranked 33rd and 17th 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 1.5 months in San Diego compared to 1.1 months in Shenzhen. San Diego ranked 26th best city to live in the United States vs Shenzhen ranked 3rd in China, while ranked 97th and 1094th among best cities to live in the world.

Salary adjustment calculator
the estimated difference in money purchasing power

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

Prices in San Diego vs Shenzhen

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

	San Diego	Shenzhen
Eating Out
🍱 Lunch Menu	$21.5	$3.52
🥂 Dinner in a Restaurant, for 2	$85.1	$28.1
🥪 Fast food meal, equiv. McDonald's	$15.1	$4.93
🍻 Beer in a Pub, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$8.63	$1.26
☕ Cappuccino	$6.32	$3.12
🥤 Pepsi / Coke, 0.5 L or 16.9 fl oz	$3.03	$0.5
Rent & Utilities
🏙️ 1 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$2499	$619
🏡 Cheap 1 bedroom apartment, 40 m2 or 430 ft2	$2053	$350
🏙️ 3 bedroom apartment in Downtown, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$4569	$1122
🏡 Cheap 3 bedroom apartment, 80 m2 or 860 ft2	$3654	$637
🔌 Utility Bill one person, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$156	$40.2
🔌 Utility Bill for a Family, electricity, heating, water, etc.	$240	$61.5
🌐 Internet plan, 50 Mbps+ 1 month unlimited	$71	$12.1
🏦 Mortgage Interest Rate for 20 Years	6.43%	3.84%
🏙️ Apartment price to Buy in city Center, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$9580	$12494
🏡 House price to Buy in Suburbs, 1 m2 or 10 ft2	$7151	$5776
Transportation
🚌 Local transport ticket	$2.49	$0.42
🎟️ Monthly ticket local transport	$71	$21
🚕 Taxi Ride, 8 km or 5 mi	$19.6	$4.58
⛽ Gas / Petrol, 1 L or 0.26 gal	$1.25	$1.16
Groceries
🥛 Milk, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.26	$1.76
🍞 Bread, 0.5 kg or 1.1 lb	$3.92	$1.92
🍚 Rice, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$3.92	$1.13
🥚 Eggs, x12	$6.16	$1.82
🧀 Cheese, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$15.2	$12.4
🐔 Chicken Breast, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$13.1	$3.43
🥩 Round Steak, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$20.3	$13
🍏 Apples, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.5	$1.85
🍌 Banana, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$1.74	$1.36
🍊 Oranges, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.03	$1.64
🍅 Tomato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$4.81	$1.24
🥔 Potato, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.56	$1.01
🧅 Onion, 1 kg or 2.2 lb	$2.37	$1.31
🌊 Water, 1 L or 1 qt	$1.58	$0.4
🍹 Coca-Cola / Pepsi, 2 L or 67.6 fl oz	$3.26	$1.08
🍾 Wine (mid-priced), 750 mL bottle	$16.6	$12.3
🍺 Beer, 0.5 L or 16 fl oz	$2.91	$0.86
🚬 Cigarette pack	$12.3	$3.51
💊 Cold medicince, 1 week	$14.9	$5.34
🧴 Hair Shampoo	$9.97	$6.05
🧻 Toilet paper, 4 rolls	$5.53	$1.65
👄 Toothpaste, 1 tube	$2.47	$1.96
Other
🏋️ Gym Membership, 1 month	$63.1	$43.9
🎫 Cinema Ticket, 1 person	$17.9	$7.06
👩‍⚕️ Doctor's visit	$131	$34
💇 Haircut, simple	$30.4	$9.65
👖 Brand Jeans	$60.2	$47.5
👟 Brand Sneakers	$108	$73.2
👶 Daycare or Preschool, 1 month	$1745	$444
🏫 International Primary School, 1 year	$28967	$22402

Cost of living in other countries

Cost of living

Cost of Living in the nearest cities

Cities near San Diego

Distance	City	Cost of living
4.2 km or 2.6 mi	Coronado	$3195
7.2 km or 4.5 mi	National	$3013
13 km or 7.8 mi	Lemon Grove	$2932
14 km or 9 mi	Chula Vista	$2972
14 km or 9 mi	La Mesa	$2943
16 km or 9.8 mi	Imperial Beach	$2909
18 km or 11 mi	La Jolla	$2996
21 km or 13 mi	El Cajon	$2988
24 km or 15 mi	Tijuana	$1210
25 km or 15 mi	Santee	$2887
30 km or 19 mi	Poway	$2922
38 km or 24 mi	Encinitas	$3066
40 km or 25 mi	Las Delicias	$1063
43 km or 26 mi	Rosarito Beach	$1055
46 km or 29 mi	Escondido	$3215
47 km or 30 mi	San Marcos	$2931
52 km or 33 mi	Carlsbad	$3252
54 km or 33 mi	Vista	$2930
57 km or 36 mi	Oceanside	$3274
73 km or 46 mi	Fallbrook	$2873
88 km or 55 mi	Temecula	$2681
91 km or 57 mi	San Clemente	$2967
95 km or 59 mi	Murrieta	$3049
97 km or 61 mi	Dana Point	$2994
98 km or 61 mi	French Valley	$2715
99 km or 61 mi	San Juan Capistrano	$3057
99 km or 61 mi	Wildomar	$2776
104 km or 65 mi	Laguna Niguel	$3490
107 km or 66 mi	Laguna Beach	$3075
107 km or 67 mi	Menifee	$2626
109 km or 68 mi	Ensenada	$903
109 km or 68 mi	Lake Elsinore	$2671
110 km or 68 mi	Mission Viejo	$3585
110 km or 69 mi	Laguna Hills	$3037
111 km or 69 mi	Rancho Santa Margarita	$3014
114 km or 71 mi	Aliso Viejo	$3450
114 km or 71 mi	Lake Forest	$2539
115 km or 72 mi	Hemet	$2742
119 km or 74 mi	Perris	$2691
119 km or 74 mi	Temescal Valley	$2782

Cities near Shenzhen

Distance	City	Cost of living
28 km or 17 mi	Kowloon	$2414
30 km or 19 mi	Hong Kong	$2718
58 km or 36 mi	Zhuhai	$662
65 km or 40 mi	Dongguan	$662
66 km or 41 mi	Macau	$1746
72 km or 45 mi	Zhongshan	$518
74 km or 46 mi	Huizhou	$608
100 km or 62 mi	Jiangmen	$829
105 km or 65 mi	Guangzhou	$758
112 km or 69 mi	Foshan	$589
134 km or 83 mi	Shanwei	$941
142 km or 88 mi	Kaiping	$827
150 km or 93 mi	Heyuan	$766
164 km or 102 mi	Qingyuan	$777
174 km or 108 mi	Zhaoqing	$794
212 km or 131 mi	Yunfu	$816
228 km or 142 mi	Yangjiang	$892
233 km or 145 mi	Puning	$579
256 km or 159 mi	Shaoguan	$818
262 km or 163 mi	Jieyang	$451
286 km or 178 mi	Shantou	$589
288 km or 179 mi	Meizhou	$669
292 km or 182 mi	Chaozhou	$454
299 km or 186 mi	Wuzhou	$809
303 km or 188 mi	Lianzhou	$765
330 km or 205 mi	Hezhou	$766
337 km or 209 mi	Gaozhou	$780
337 km or 210 mi	Maoming	$773
377 km or 234 mi	Ganzhou	$897
378 km or 235 mi	Chenzhou	$750
401 km or 249 mi	Yulin	$726
405 km or 252 mi	Zhanjiang	$790
415 km or 258 mi	Longyan	$697
428 km or 266 mi	Zhangzhou	$681
460 km or 286 mi	Guigang	$693
464 km or 288 mi	Xiamen	$707
477 km or 297 mi	Haikou	$677
485 km or 301 mi	Kinmen	$901
489 km or 304 mi	Guilin	$546
502 km or 312 mi	Yongzhou	$634