Cost of living comparison

Sao Tome and Principe

compared to

Lesotho

Lesotho vs. Sao Tome and Principe Cost of Living Summary

Lesotho is 43.1% cheaper than Sao Tome and Principe overall.

Restaurants: pay 6.6% less in Lesotho
Groceries: pay 41.9% less in Lesotho
Transportation: pay 30.3% less in Lesotho
Housing: pay 68.3% less in Lesotho
Childcare: pay 65.0% less in Lesotho
Entertainment and Sports: pay 3.6% less in Lesotho
Clothing: pay 2.5 times more in Lesotho

Expenses including housing, childcare, groceries, transportation, restaurants, and entertainment and sports are lower in Lesotho. Notably, clothing is significantly more expensive in Lesotho.

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Lesotho vs. Sao Tome and Principe Cost Breakdown

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

Display currency: USD

pay 6.6% less for restaurants

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Basic meal with drink at inexpensive restaurant	$8.96 STD200K	$9.01 LSL148.38	+0.6%
Fast food combo meal McDonalds, or similar	$7.89 STD176K	$8.41 LSL138.49	+6.7%
Bottle of Coca-Cola (11 fl. oz)	$1.84 STD41,004	$1.07 LSL17.56	-42.0%
Bottle of water (11 fl. oz)	$1.25 STD27,770	$0.84 LSL13.85	-32.5%
Average			-6.6%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - Cost of restaurants

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pay 41.9% less for groceries

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Bread 1 loaf	$1.00 STD22,187	$0.83 LSL13.60	-17.0%
Local cheese (8 oz)	$9.80 STD218K	$3.30 LSL54.39	-66.3%
Milk (1 gallon)	$5.87 STD131K	$4.38 LSL72.07	-25.4%
Eggs 1 dozen	$4.85 STD108K	$1.54 LSL25.32	-68.3%
Boneless chicken breast (1 lb)	$8.89 STD198K	$2.79 LSL45.98	-68.6%
Apples (1 lb)	$1.70 STD37,881	$0.85 LSL14.02	-49.9%
Bananas (1 lb)	$0.79 STD17,644	$1.02 LSL16.71	+28.2%
Oranges (1 lb)	$1.63 STD36,419	$1.23 LSL20.19	-25.0%
Tomatoes (1 lb)	$1.57 STD34,958	$1.09 LSL17.95	-30.5%
Potatoes (1 lb)	$1.31 STD29,299	$0.71 LSL11.66	-46.1%
Onions (1 lb)	$1.08 STD23,986	$0.73 LSL12.00	-32.3%
Average			-41.9%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - Cost of groceries

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pay 30.3% less for transportation

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Gasoline (1 gallon)	$6.46 STD144K	$4.98 LSL81.93	-22.9%
Monthly public transit pass	??	$30.04 LSL494.60
New Volkswagen Golf 1.4 (standard edition)	$24,634.18 STD549M	$21,030.86 LSL346K	-14.6%
Taxi trip in downtown area (5 miles)	$22.43 STD500K	$6.01 LSL98.92	-73.2%
Average			-30.3%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - Cost of transportation

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pay 68.3% less for housing

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Internet connection 50 mbps or faster, cable/dsl	$66.91 STD1M	$38.30 LSL630.53	-42.8%
1-Bedroom apartment in downtown area	$284.91 STD6M	$93.14 LSL1,533.25	-67.3%
1-Bedroom apartment outside city center	$195.02 STD4M	$55.58 LSL915.01	-71.5%
Utilities for two (700 sq ft apartment) including electric, gas, water, heating	$174.83 STD4M	??
Average			-68.3%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - Cost of housing

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pay 65.0% less for childcare

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Private preschool for 1 child, monthly	$228.62 STD5M	$52.06 LSL857.06	-77.2%
Middle school for 1 child, two semesters	$2,194.77 STD49M	$1,181.73 LSL19,454.17	-46.2%
Average			-65.0%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - Cost of childcare

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pay 3.6% less for entertainment and sports

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Domestic/local beer (1 pint)	$1.70 STD37,799	$1.80 LSL29.68	+6.3%
Cappuccino in mid-range area	$2.26 STD50,442	$2.00 LSL32.97	-11.5%
Pack of cigarettes Marlboro or similar	$2.26 STD50,420	$5.11 LSL84.08	+125.7%
Monthly membership at local gym	$33.92 STD756K	$23.03 LSL379.19	-32.1%
Movie ticket to theater/cinema	$20.16 STD449K	??
Average			-3.6%

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

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pay 2.5 times more for clothing

	Sao Tome and Principe	Lesotho
Regular jeans Levi's brand	??	$46.07 LSL758.38
Regular dress from H&M or similar store	$75.02 STD2M	$55.58 LSL915.01	-25.9%
Running shoes Nike or Adidas	??	$104.15 LSL1,714.61
Men's business shoes (leather)	$18.36 STD409K	$150.22 LSL2,472.99	+718.0%
Average			+146.2%

Sao Tome and Principe vs. Lesotho - 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. Lesotho

Salary Calculator · Free tool

What salary would you need in Lesotho?

Quality of Life Comparison · 21 statistics

Be 78.8% more likely to be unemployed in Lesotho

Size Comparison · See true size

Sao Tome and Principe is about 31 times smaller than Lesotho.

Moving from Sao Tome and Principe to Lesotho · Cost, visas & climate

Compare cost of living, salary and climate.

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