Compare Two Cities
Salary Equivalent Calculator
Find out how much you need to earn in another city to maintain the same standard of living.
| # | City | Country | Index | 1BR Rent | 3BR Rent | Avg Salary |
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Category Breakdown Comparison
What the Cost of Living Comparison does
This tool compares everyday prices in 30 large cities, all in US dollars: monthly rent for a one-bedroom and a three-bedroom apartment, a cheap meal, a mid-range restaurant meal, a coffee, monthly transport, a month of groceries and an average monthly net salary. Each city also carries an overall cost index on which New York is 100. It gives you a first sense of how far money goes before a move, a long stay abroad or a job offer in another city.
All prices here are hard-coded estimates stored in the page, not live prices. Results are for general information only and are not financial or relocation advice; check current listings, job offers and local sources before you decide anything.
How to use the four tabs
- City Comparison: pick City A and City B (New York and Tokyo are preselected). Two cards list every category, and the badges on City B's card show how much higher or lower each value is than City A's, in percent. For prices a red badge means more expensive; for salary a green badge means higher pay.
- Salary Calculator: enter your monthly salary in US dollars, choose the city you are moving from and the city you are moving to, and read the equivalent salary.
- City Rankings: search by city or country, filter by region, and click a column heading (Index, 1BR Rent, 3BR Rent, Avg Salary and so on) to sort. Click again to reverse the order.
- Category Breakdown: choose two cities to see paired bars for each category, scaled so that the larger of the two values fills the bar.
How the calculations work
The equivalent salary is a simple ratio: your salary × (destination index ÷ origin index). For example, with a $5,000 monthly salary, moving from New York (index 100) to Tokyo (index 75 in this dataset) gives $5,000 × 75 ÷ 100 = $3,750. The comparison badges use (City B − City A) ÷ City A × 100, rounded to one decimal place.
Everything is calculated in your browser. The salary you type is not sent anywhere or saved, and the page does not load any external data or chart library.
Data sources and limitations
The page does not cite a specific source or date for its prices. They are approximate, rounded figures bundled with the page and are not updated automatically, so inflation and exchange-rate moves since they were entered are not reflected.
- The salary calculator uses only the overall index. If rent is your largest cost, compare the rent figures directly, because housing differences between cities are often much larger than the index suggests.
- Income tax, social insurance, health care, school fees and childcare are not included.
- Because everything is converted to US dollars, a change in exchange rates can shift the comparison even when local prices stay the same.
- Average salary is one net monthly figure per city; actual pay varies widely by occupation and experience.
- Rents are typical city-wide values; central and outer districts can differ by a large margin.
Frequently asked questions
What does an index of 50 mean?
That the city is estimated to be about half as expensive as New York overall. In this dataset Zurich (120) and San Francisco (105) sit above New York, while Cairo (20) has the lowest index.
Is the calculated salary what I should ask for?
Treat it as a rough starting point only. It ignores taxes, local salary levels, your housing needs and lifestyle, and it relies on estimated prices. It is not financial advice.
What is purchasing power parity?
Purchasing power parity (PPP) compares what the same basket of goods and services costs in different places, so incomes can be compared by what they buy rather than by exchange rates alone. This tool's index is a simplified version of that idea.
Is the salary I enter stored?
No. It stays in the input box on your device and is used only for the on-page calculation.