Cost of living comparison

United States

compared to

Mexico

Playa del Carmen vs. Fort Smith Cost of Living Summary

Playa del Carmen is 19.9% cheaper than Fort Smith.

Restaurants: pay 32.7% less in Playa del Carmen
Groceries: pay 5.0% less in Playa del Carmen
Transportation: pay 23.7% more in Playa del Carmen
Housing: pay 24.3% less in Playa del Carmen
Childcare: pay 80.2% less in Playa del Carmen
Entertainment and Sports: pay 24.5% less in Playa del Carmen
Clothing: pay 4.7% less in Playa del Carmen

Expenses including childcare, restaurants, entertainment and sports, housing, groceries, and clothing are lower in Playa del Carmen.

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Playa del Carmen vs. Fort Smith Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Playa del Carmen instead of Fort Smith, you would:

Display currency: USD

pay 32.7% less for restaurants

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant	$20.00	$11.13 MX$205.76	-44.4%
Fast food combo meal McDonalds, or similar	$11.50	$11.94 MX$220.72	+3.8%
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz)	$2.33	$1.34 MX$24.83	-42.5%
Bottle of water (11 fl. oz)	$2.02	$0.82 MX$15.25	-59.1%
Average			-32.7%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of restaurants

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pay 5.0% less for groceries

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Bread 1 loaf	$3.35	$2.30 MX$42.51	-31.4%
Local cheese (8 oz)	$3.74	$3.80 MX$70.30	+1.7%
Milk (1 gallon)	$3.69	$5.64 MX$104.29	+52.8%
Eggs 1 dozen	$2.94	$2.53 MX$46.87	-13.7%
Boneless chicken breast (1 lb)	$4.92	$3.67 MX$67.89	-25.4%
Apples (1 lb)	$2.22	$1.31 MX$24.17	-41.1%
Bananas (1 lb)	$0.65	$0.66 MX$12.13	+1.4%
Oranges (1 lb)	$1.13	$1.20 MX$22.24	+6.4%
Tomatoes (1 lb)	$0.98	$0.97 MX$17.89	-1.3%
Potatoes (1 lb)	$0.88	$0.91 MX$16.82	+3.4%
Onions (1 lb)	$0.70	$0.89 MX$16.46	+27.2%
Average			-5.0%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of groceries

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pay 23.7% more for transportation

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Gasoline (1 gallon)	$2.94	$5.72 MX$105.85	+94.5%
Monthly public transit pass	$35.00	$27.82 MX$514.40	-20.5%
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition)	$26,000.00	$21,528.95 MX$398K	-17.2%
Taxi trip in downtown area (5 miles)	$12.75	$32.66 MX$604.00	+156.2%
Average			+23.7%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of transportation

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pay 24.3% less for housing

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Internet connection 50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl	$68.50	$29.02 MX$536.69	-57.6%
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area	$679.75	$998.64 MX$18,467.72	+46.9%
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center	$656.25	$386.21 MX$7,142.10	-41.1%
Utilities for two (700 sq ft apartment) including electric, gas, water, heating	$213.32	$65.50 MX$1,211.29	-69.3%
Average			-24.3%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of housing

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pay 80.2% less for childcare

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly	$900.00	$210.01 MX$3,883.69	-76.7%
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters	$23,729.17	$4,005.49 MX$74,073.10	-83.1%
Average			-80.2%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of childcare

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pay 24.5% less for entertainment and sports

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Domestic/local beer (1 pint)	$6.00	$3.17 MX$58.59	-47.2%
Cappuccino in mid-range area	$5.26	$3.84 MX$71.02	-27.0%
Pack of cigarettes Marlboro or similar	$8.21	$4.45 MX$82.30	-45.8%
Monthly membership at local gym	$26.67	$64.07 MX$1,184.89	+140.3%
Movie ticket to theater/cinema	$13.50	$5.00 MX$92.42	-63.0%
Average			-24.5%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of entertainment and sports

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pay 4.7% less for clothing

	Fort Smith	Playa del Carmen
Regular jeans Levi's brand	$53.80	$44.85 MX$829.44	-16.6%
Regular dress from H&M or similar store	$41.20	$42.62 MX$788.17	+3.5%
Running shoes Nike or Adidas	$93.33	$76.03 MX$1,406.02	-18.5%
Men's business shoes (leather)	$76.66	$90.05 MX$1,665.28	+17.5%
Average			-4.7%

Fort Smith vs. Playa del Carmen - Cost of clothing

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We average the price of thousands of data points entered by users across the world. Sources: MyLifeElsewhere's cost-of-living dataset (prices updated October 2026). How we calculate this

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