Cost of living comparison

Malawi

compared to

Colombia

Bogota vs. Lilongwe Cost of Living Summary

Bogota is 73.3% more expensive than Lilongwe.

Restaurants: pay 27.5% more in Bogota
Groceries: pay 9.0% more in Bogota
Transportation: pay 2.4 times more in Bogota
Housing: pay 2.5 times more in Bogota
Childcare: pay 32.3% more in Bogota
Entertainment and Sports: pay 1.4% more in Bogota

The cost of housing, transportation, childcare, restaurants, groceries, and entertainment and sports in Bogota are more expensive than in Lilongwe. Notably, housing and transportation are significantly more expensive in Bogota.

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Bogota vs. Lilongwe Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Bogota instead of Lilongwe, you would:

Display currency: USD

pay 27.5% more for restaurants

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant	$5.00 MWK8,683.00	$7.72 COP24,504.06	+54.4%
Fast food combo meal McDonalds, or similar	$10.25 MWK17,800.16	$10.19 COP32,345.37	-0.6%
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz)	$1.26 MWK2,182.36	$1.34 COP4,267.92	+7.0%
Bottle of water (11 fl. oz)	$0.57 MWK984.76	$0.87 COP2,755.00	+53.1%
Average			+27.5%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of restaurants

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pay 9.0% more for groceries

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Bread 1 loaf	$1.82 MWK3,155.26	$2.42 COP7,690.34	+33.4%
Local cheese (8 oz)	$7.88 MWK13,683.33	$3.93 COP12,460.95	-50.2%
Milk (1 gallon)	$4.73 MWK8,212.45	$6.14 COP19,479.18	+29.8%
Eggs 1 dozen	$2.90 MWK5,041.67	$3.39 COP10,767.09	+16.8%
Boneless chicken breast (1 lb)	$2.38 MWK4,131.01	$3.30 COP10,487.06	+38.9%
Apples (1 lb)	$1.17 MWK2,026.12	$1.56 COP4,960.76	+34.0%
Bananas (1 lb)	$0.56 MWK979.47	$0.81 COP2,555.68	+42.8%
Oranges (1 lb)	$0.68 MWK1,181.56	$0.87 COP2,775.49	+28.5%
Tomatoes (1 lb)	$1.03 MWK1,786.72	$0.79 COP2,499.80	-23.4%
Potatoes (1 lb)	$0.92 MWK1,593.81	$0.65 COP2,066.32	-29.1%
Onions (1 lb)	$0.45 MWK787.71	$0.63 COP1,985.15	+37.9%
Average			+9.0%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of groceries

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pay 2.4 times more for transportation

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Gasoline (1 gallon)	$6.03 MWK10,463.30	$4.90 COP15,551.55	-18.7%
Monthly public transit pass	$4.32 MWK7,505.49	$49.41 COP157K	+1043.2%
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition)	??	$23,161.08 COP74M
Taxi trip in downtown area (5 miles)	??	$20.84 COP66,160.97
Average			+144.6%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of transportation

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pay 2.5 times more for housing

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Internet connection 50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl	$61.21 MWK106K	$29.75 COP94,422.33	-51.4%
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area	$540.71 MWK939K	$779.14 COP2M	+44.1%
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center	$85.13 MWK148K	$440.22 COP1M	+417.1%
Utilities for two (700 sq ft apartment) including electric, gas, water, heating	$34.63 MWK60,134.34	$93.36 COP296K	+169.6%
Average			+149.9%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of housing

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pay 32.3% more for childcare

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly	$350.00 MWK608K	$463.22 COP1M	+32.3%
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters	??	$8,195.93 COP26M
Average			+32.3%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of childcare

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pay 1.4% more for entertainment and sports

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Domestic/local beer (1 pint)	$2.20 MWK3,823.26	$2.01 COP6,371.06	-8.8%
Cappuccino in mid-range area	$3.21 MWK5,580.44	$2.52 COP7,993.08	-21.6%
Pack of cigarettes Marlboro or similar	$2.43 MWK4,223.25	$4.32 COP13,722.28	+77.8%
Monthly membership at local gym	$30.85 MWK53,568.54	$33.42 COP106K	+8.4%
Movie ticket to theater/cinema	??	$7.72 COP24,504.06
Average			+1.4%

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - Cost of entertainment and sports

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pay (unknown) more for clothing

	Lilongwe	Bogota
Regular jeans Levi's brand	??	$82.94 COP263K
Regular dress from H&M or similar store	??	$47.35 COP150K
Running shoes Nike or Adidas	??	$141.13 COP448K
Men's business shoes (leather)	??	$104.65 COP332K

Lilongwe vs. Bogota - 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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See the cost of living in Malawi vs. Colombia. This provides a comparison of the average cost of living from cities within Malawi and Colombia.

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