Cost of living comparison

Sao Tome and Principe

compared to

Italy

Italy vs. Sao Tome and Principe Cost of Living Summary

Italy is 56.6% more expensive than Sao Tome and Principe overall.

Restaurants: pay 69.2% more in Italy
Groceries: pay 11.1% less in Italy
Transportation: pay 23.1% more in Italy
Housing: pay 2.1 times more in Italy
Childcare: pay 3.4 times more in Italy
Entertainment and Sports: pay 31.8% more in Italy
Clothing: pay 88.3% more in Italy

The cost of childcare, housing, clothing, restaurants, entertainment and sports, and transportation in Italy are more expensive than in Sao Tome and Principe. Notably, childcare, housing, and clothing are significantly more expensive in Italy.

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Italy vs. Sao Tome and Principe Cost Breakdown

If you lived in Italy instead of Sao Tome and Principe, you would:

Display currency: USD

pay 69.2% more for restaurants

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant	$8.96 STD200K	$18.81 €16.74	+110.0%
Fast food combo meal McDonalds, or similar	$7.89 STD176K	$11.59 €10.31	+46.9%
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz)	$1.84 STD41,004	$2.95 €2.62	+60.1%
Bottle of water (11 fl. oz)	$1.25 STD27,770	$1.38 €1.23	+10.9%
Average			+69.2%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of restaurants

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pay 11.1% less for groceries

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Bread 1 loaf	$1.00 STD22,187	$2.19 €1.95	+120.2%
Local cheese (8 oz)	$9.80 STD218K	$8.58 €7.64	-12.4%
Milk (1 gallon)	$5.87 STD131K	$5.84 €5.20	-0.6%
Eggs 1 dozen	$4.85 STD108K	$4.02 €3.58	-17.1%
Boneless chicken breast (1 lb)	$8.89 STD198K	$5.65 €5.02	-36.5%
Apples (1 lb)	$1.70 STD37,881	$1.15 €1.02	-32.5%
Bananas (1 lb)	$0.79 STD17,644	$0.96 €0.85	+20.9%
Oranges (1 lb)	$1.63 STD36,419	$1.19 €1.06	-27.4%
Tomatoes (1 lb)	$1.57 STD34,958	$1.45 €1.29	-7.4%
Potatoes (1 lb)	$1.31 STD29,299	$0.86 €0.76	-34.7%
Onions (1 lb)	$1.08 STD23,986	$0.81 €0.72	-24.4%
Average			-11.1%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of groceries

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pay 23.1% more for transportation

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Gasoline (1 gallon)	$6.46 STD144K	$7.75 €6.90	+20.1%
Monthly public transit pass	??	$43.51 €38.72
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition)	$24,634.18 STD549M	$34,598.57 €30,793.97	+40.4%
Taxi trip in downtown area (5 miles)	$22.43 STD500K	$20.27 €18.04	-9.6%
Average			+23.1%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of transportation

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pay 2.1 times more for housing

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Internet connection 50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl	$66.91 STD1M	$30.01 €26.71	-55.1%
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area	$284.91 STD6M	$723.52 €643.96	+153.9%
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center	$195.02 STD4M	$562.80 €500.92	+188.6%
Utilities for two (700 sq ft apartment) including electric, gas, water, heating	$174.83 STD4M	$162.38 €144.52	-7.1%
Average			+110.8%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of housing

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pay 3.4 times more for childcare

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly	$228.62 STD5M	$542.33 €482.69	+137.2%
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters	$2,194.77 STD49M	$10,535.75 €9,377.19	+380.0%
Average			+237.4%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of childcare

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pay 31.8% more for entertainment and sports

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Domestic/local beer (1 pint)	$1.70 STD37,799	$5.64 €5.02	+232.3%
Cappuccino in mid-range area	$2.26 STD50,442	$1.96 €1.74	-13.5%
Pack of cigarettes Marlboro or similar	$2.26 STD50,420	$6.73 €5.99	+197.3%
Monthly membership at local gym	$33.92 STD756K	$55.93 €49.78	+64.9%
Movie ticket to theater/cinema	$20.16 STD449K	$10.26 €9.13	-49.1%
Average			+31.8%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - Cost of entertainment and sports

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pay 88.3% more for clothing

	Sao Tome and Principe	Italy
Regular jeans Levi's brand	??	$86.42 €76.92
Regular dress from H&M or similar store	$75.02 STD2M	$38.24 €34.03	-49.0%
Running shoes Nike or Adidas	??	$99.86 €88.88
Men's business shoes (leather)	$18.36 STD409K	$127.82 €113.76	+596.0%
Average			+88.3%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy - 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

Compare further: Sao Tome and Principe vs. Italy

Salary Calculator · Free tool

What salary would you need in Italy?

Quality of Life Comparison · 22 statistics

Make 10.6 times more money in Italy

Size Comparison · See true size

Sao Tome and Principe is about 313 times smaller than Italy.

Moving from Sao Tome and Principe to Italy · OECD 2023

1 people moved from Sao Tome and Principe to Italy.

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