City comparison
Cost of living in Lisbon vs Rome
One person needs about €1,874 a month in Lisbon and €1,777 in Rome, rent included — Rome is 5% cheaper overall.
Salary you'd need to keep the same lifestyle
Enter your current net monthly pay. We scale it by the full cost basket — rent, groceries, transport, utilities, eating out and internet.
To live in Rome the way you live in Lisbon on €3,000, you need
€2,845/ month net
5% less than today (-€155)
- Lisbon today
- Basket €1,874 · left over €1,126 (38%)
- Rome at the matched salary
- Basket €1,777 · left over €1,068 (38%)
Local pay context: average tech net pay covers the basket 129% over in Rome (tight) vs 128% in Lisbon. Purchasing power index · How we calculate this
🇵🇹 Lisbon
Visa-friendly and well connected, but local salaries lag far behind expat-driven rents.
Monthly budget: €1,874
Sources: Statistics Portugal (INE) + Eurostat, HICP & house-rent statistics (2025) · 331 community reports
🇮🇹 Rome
Cheap transport and cheap coffee; bureaucracy and low local wages are the trade-off.
Monthly budget: €1,777
Sources: Eurostat, Harmonised price indices (2025) · 0 community reports
Should you move to Lisbon or Rome?
On salary, Lisbon pays more for tech roles (€2,400 versus €2,300 a month), so the money left over after costs is €526 in Lisbon at the top end.
Rent drives most of the gap: €1,300 in Lisbon against €1,150 in Rome. Groceries, transport and utilities move far less between the two.
For remote workers, the nomad index scores Lisbon at 83 and Rome at 72 — see the full nomad index and our data methodology.