Cost of Living in Chiang Mai

Big Mac meal with regular fries and coke is 185 baht.

This is an excellent and helpful review. I can confirm the Chiang Mai prices having lived there for 15 years. I now live in Maerim, about 20 miles north of Chiang Mai and it is even cheaper.

I think biggeat problem is health insurance. How shall I overcome this problem? Any suggestion?

The main reason Chiang Mai is so inexpensive is that wages are so low. It's a good, livable city. People are generally nice, and crime is very low. However, traffic is very bad, and if this city keeps growing, it will only get worse. The government can't be bothered to design driveable roads, educate its citizens to drive safely, or patrol the roads to ensure that traffic safety is enforced.
That said, if you are comfortable with the tropics, and with a third world country, and a place where few inhabitants speaks any language other than their native tongue, it seems a great place to retire!

I live in Chiang Mai and have done for the past 3 years. It's an amazing place, and really quite cheap, especially once you get to know the city and the restaurants it contains. You can get really great food for between 30 to 60 baht in a lot of places. 10,000-15,000 range for condo buildings will get you something really nice.

I live in Chiang Mai. It's quite cheap - a meal starts from 30 baht, for example. I rent a rooftop 1 bdr apartment for 6000, with an amazing view. My expenses rarely exceed 20k baht monthly.

I have lived in Chiang Mai since September of 2018 and I usually pay less than $1,000 a month. I live in a three bedroom, two bathroom house ( 8,500 byth per month, about $285 ) with a three car covered drive way, a large yard with empty lots to my left, right and across the street. I live with my Thai girlfriend and until November her two sons, her oldest just joined the Army. We buy from Food Panda and Grab Eats and get store deliveries. I have cable and internet and other bills but I still spend less than #1,000 per month. I am 58 years old, a person can spend less than I do and live well or spend a lot more. I have a Bangkok Hospital card but I am in good health so I save money by taking care of myself. The only time I spend more than $1,000 a month is when traveling ( the virus is making me save money ) and I had an operation. You can pay more to live in a mud hut if you do not know how to check prices ( online ). Everything cost less here, Thailand cost 1/3 to 1/5 of the cost of living in America, if you are a fool with money or need lots of medical care or want everything imported you will pay more.

General question/suggestion:
For someone seeking to expatriate for retirement, the Quality of Life metric could be adjusted, since a retiree is not relying on local income. I assume the Quality of Life also takes into account the average income of local inhabitants, and if their purchasing power is low, this might not matter too much to a retiree from a more affluent country.

You might want to give some thought to that.

Thank you for everything!