What salary do you need in another city to keep your lifestyle?
Built from official statistics, transit tariffs and portal market reports — then adjusted for each country's tax wedge, which crowdsourced comparisons ignore. Pick your cities and see the honest number.
Compare your cities
Where the difference comes from (monthly, USD)
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Worked examples
Austin couple with one child moving to Mexico City
Gross salary needed in Mexico City to match your lifestyle in Austin: $2,882 / month
≈ MXN 50,118/month at 17.39 MXN/USD (2026-07) · That's -61% vs your current gross
⚠ Some data for Mexico City includes labeled estimates — see methodology.
Tax adjustment applied: effective rate ~22% in Austin vs ~11% in Mexico City (professional-salary estimate).
Where the difference comes from (monthly, USD)
- Rent (family home est.): $1,645 → $927 (▼ -44%)
- Groceries: $1,080 → $783 (▼ -28%)
- Public transit: $83 → $46 (▼ -44%)
- Utilities + internet: $230 → $100 (▼ -57%)
- Private healthcare: $1,719 → $286 (▼ -83%)
New York family of four relocating to central Madrid
Gross salary needed in Madrid to match your lifestyle in New York: $3,682 / month
≈ EUR 3,204/month at 0.87 EUR/USD (2026-07) · That's -68% vs your current gross
Tax adjustment applied: effective rate ~28% in New York vs ~21.5% in Madrid (professional-salary estimate).
Where the difference comes from (monthly, USD)
- Rent (family home est.): $6,790 → $2,093 (▼ -69%)
- Groceries: $1,547 → $1,173 (▼ -24%)
- Public transit: $280 → $76 (▼ -73%)
- Utilities + internet: $230 → $190 (▼ -17%)
- Private healthcare: $2,614 → $221 (▼ -92%)
- Childcare (2): $3,900 → $1,610 (▼ -59%)
Medellín developer paid in pesos, offer in Berlin
Gross salary needed in Berlin to match your lifestyle in Medellín: $8,173 / month
≈ EUR 7,110/month at 0.87 EUR/USD (2026-07) · That's +171% vs your current gross
⚠ Some data for Berlin includes labeled estimates — see methodology.
Tax adjustment applied: effective rate ~9% in Medellín vs ~37.5% in Berlin (professional-salary estimate).
Where the difference comes from (monthly, USD)
- Rent (1BR outside): $600 → $908 (▲ +51%)
- Groceries: $245 → $320 (▲ +31%)
- Public transit: $65 → $72 (▲ +11%)
- Utilities + internet: $140 → $380 (▲ +171%)
- Private healthcare: $130 → $515 (▲ +296%)
Examples are recomputed whenever the underlying rates or data change; the date above is the last recompute.
Methodology & data sources
For each of the 16 cities we maintain a monthly cost basket from open and official sources only — no Numbeo or Expatistan data: rents from portal market reports (Idealista June 2026 for Spain, Zillow June-July 2026 for US metros, Inmuebles24 April 2026 for Mexico, Ciencuadras/El Colombiano June 2026 for Colombia, Zonaprop, Urbania, Engel & Völkers), transit passes from each transit authority's published 2026 tariff, gasoline from official price monitors, groceries anchored to each country's official subsistence basket (USDA food plans, INEGI, DANE, INDEC, Chile's CBA) scaled by a stated professional-lifestyle multiplier, private healthcare from published 2026 premiums, and childcare from market surveys. The equivalent salary is computed as your gross × (destination basket ÷ current basket) × a tax adjustment using each country's effective rate on a professional salary (OECD Taxing Wages where available, statutory contribution rates otherwise) — because comparing gross to gross across, say, Berlin (~37.5% wedge) and Medellín (~9%) misleads by design. Center/outside rent bands are derived from citywide portal averages and labeled as such; cities where any line is an estimate carry a visible flag in the result. World Bank PPP factors (2025 vintage) are stored with each city for reference but are not used in the headline number.
Per-city source links are shown with each result; the full sourced dataset is versioned in our data file.
Frequently asked questions
Why adjust for taxes?
Because a €60,000 Berlin offer and a $60,000 Austin offer are not the same money: the German tax wedge on a single professional is ~37.5%, Texas has no state income tax. Lifestyle runs on net income; our ratio corrects for it.
Why don't you use Numbeo's data?
It's crowdsourced, unaudited, and its best relocation features are paywalled. Official statistics and portal market reports are slower to gather but auditable — every line in our basket links to its source and carries a verification date.
What does the household setting change?
Groceries scale per person (children at 70%), healthcare per person (children at 60%), transit per adult, and with children the rent line assumes a larger home (+40% over a 1BR). Childcare is optional because it can dominate everything else.
My city's data is flagged as thin — what does that mean?
One or more lines (usually childcare or utilities) is a labeled estimate rather than a sourced figure. We show the flag instead of hiding it; those lines are refreshed first on the next verification pass.