Cost of Living in Milan

Summary about cost of living in Milan, Italy:

Restaurants
Edit Range
Meal, Inexpensive Restaurant 20.00 € 10.00-25.00
Meal for 2 People, Mid-range Restaurant, Three-course 80.00 € 50.00-110.00
McMeal at McDonalds (or Equivalent Combo Meal) 10.00 € 8.00-12.00
Domestic Beer (1 pint draught) 6.00 € 5.00-7.00
Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) 5.00 € 4.00-7.00
Cappuccino (regular) 1.68 € 1.20-2.60
Coke/Pepsi (12 oz small bottle) 2.87 € 2.00-3.50
Water (12 oz small bottle) 1.23 € 1.00-2.00
Markets
Edit
Milk (regular), (1 gallon) 5.63 € 3.79-6.81
Loaf of Fresh White Bread (1 lb) 2.03 € 0.96-3.08
Rice (white), (1 lb) 1.25 € 0.68-1.81
Eggs (regular) (12) 3.55 € 2.00-5.20
Local Cheese (1 lb) 6.43 € 3.63-9.07
Chicken Fillets (1 lb) 4.95 € 2.72-6.35
Beef Round (1 lb) (or Equivalent Back Leg Red Meat) 8.91 € 4.08-11.34
Apples (1 lb) 1.04 € 0.45-1.36
Banana (1 lb) 0.88 € 0.54-1.81
Oranges (1 lb) 0.99 € 0.45-1.59
Tomato (1 lb) 1.23 € 0.64-2.27
Potato (1 lb) 0.66 € 0.38-1.13
Onion (1 lb) 0.54 € 0.35-0.91
Lettuce (1 head) 1.16 € 0.50-2.00
Water (1.5 liter bottle) 0.49 € 0.26-1.00
Bottle of Wine (Mid-Range) 7.00 € 4.50-12.00
Domestic Beer (0.5 liter bottle) 1.48 € 1.00-2.00
Imported Beer (12 oz small bottle) 1.95 € 1.00-3.00
Cigarettes 20 Pack (Marlboro) 6.00 € 5.50-6.20
Transportation
Edit
One-way Ticket (Local Transport) 2.20 € 2.00-2.20
Monthly Pass (Regular Price) 39.00 € 30.00-45.00
Taxi Start (Normal Tariff) 6.00 € 3.80-8.00
Taxi 1 mile (Normal Tariff) 3.22 € 1.83-4.02
Taxi 1hour Waiting (Normal Tariff) 35.00 € 30.00-50.00
Gasoline (1 gallon) 7.08 € 6.44-7.65
Volkswagen Golf 1.4 90 KW Trendline (Or Equivalent New Car) 25,000.00 € 23,000.00-30,000.00
Toyota Corolla Sedan 1.6l 97kW Comfort (Or Equivalent New Car) 28,002.78 € 25,900.00-30,000.00
Utilities (Monthly)
Edit
Basic (Electricity, Heating, Cooling, Water, Garbage) for 915 sq ft Apartment 198.52 € 100.00-319.00
1 min. of Prepaid Mobile Tariff Local (No Discounts or Plans) 0.13 € 0.04-0.20
Internet (60 Mbps or More, Unlimited Data, Cable/ADSL) 27.89 € 25.00-34.00
Sports And Leisure
Edit
Fitness Club, Monthly Fee for 1 Adult 69.30 € 30.00-110.00
Tennis Court Rent (1 Hour on Weekend) 25.96 € 20.00-30.00
Cinema, International Release, 1 Seat 10.00 € 9.00-12.00
Childcare
Edit
Preschool (or Kindergarten), Full Day, Private, Monthly for 1 Child 728.57 € 500.00-900.00
International Primary School, Yearly for 1 Child 15,880.55 € 12,000.00-21,500.00
Clothing And Shoes
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1 Pair of Jeans (Levis 501 Or Similar) 90.53 € 40.00-120.00
1 Summer Dress in a Chain Store (Zara, H&M, ...) 32.97 € 19.00-50.00
1 Pair of Nike Running Shoes (Mid-Range) 94.11 € 60.00-120.00
1 Pair of Men Leather Business Shoes 143.72 € 80.00-240.00
Rent Per Month
Edit
Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre 1,300.40 € 950.00-1,900.00
Apartment (1 bedroom) Outside of Centre 870.73 € 650.00-1,200.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre 2,669.39 € 2,000.00-4,000.00
Apartment (3 bedrooms) Outside of Centre 1,721.25 € 1,400.00-2,200.00
Buy Apartment Price
Edit
Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment in City Centre 822.78 € 641.03-1,114.83
Price per Square Feet to Buy Apartment Outside of Centre 421.16 € 325.16-510.96
Salaries And Financing
Edit
Average Monthly Net Salary (After Tax) 1,764.75 €
Mortgage Interest Rate in Percentages (%), Yearly, for 20 Years Fixed-Rate 1.92 1.10-3.50

Prices in Milan

This city had 3590 entries in the past 12 months by 475 different contributors.
Last update: March 2023
Distribution of Expenses Using Our Statistical Model:
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24 Comments so far
Anonymous on Dec 19, 2022:
The salaries are way lower than 1775 that's mentioned!
The tax system does not ALLOW for people to go above 4000.
But in fact, the average salary is like 1400 euros. Even in Rome the situation is much worse, it is 1200 on average!

People live together to make the ends meet. These low salaries are also the reason why the marriage age or pregnancy age are way higher than other countries, or the reason why a huge number of under 35 live with their parents (74%), compared to the EU country (average 35%) which is way higher.

This is also the reason why you see millions of Italians anywhere across the world, as if there is a war in this country.
In fact, the youth are working for the elderlies who are still alive at 100 and taking advantage of the tax system.

Just come to this country or city if you earn somewhere else but would like to enjoy the fashion, parties, etc. Anything non-work related.

Word of advice!
Silvia Karlen on Dec 09, 2022:
The average salary after taxes is indeed about Euro 1600.- a month. Most people get 13 or even 14 salaries a year. Milan has become very expensive especially when you consider rents. Don't forget though that a lot of people are commuting from the hinterland
and a high percentage own the appartment where they live. Probably they bought it when it was still affordable....
Anonymous on Oct 27, 2022:
To expand on the point below: it's common for software devs (possibly the best paid professionals) in Milan to make <25k fresh out of uni, and then hit a ceiling of 40k ish after 10-15 years. Meanwhile, the same devs 3 hours north in Munich would start with 50-55k and comfortably hit 75k+ as seniors with approximately the same cost of living. It's ridiculous.
Anonymous on Oct 27, 2022:
Milan must be the absolute worst city in Western Europe for Cost of living/Salary ratio. Its housing prices are outrageously high, yet the salaries are pitiful. Maybe Lisbon is worse? Not sure. Anyway, I would STRONGLY advice everyone against moving to this city for a job if they can go somewhere else, unless they work in fashion.
Matteo on Oct 01, 2022:
I am reading comments about people with 3-5 years of work earning 60+k. I am happy for you but you are completely outliers in Milan. The main national statistics institution says the average salary in 2022 in Milan is around 30k that, considering 14 monthly payments, consists of something more than 1.6k. Of course there are people who earns 60,80,120k but they are just a small percentile in the distribution and useless to make a good statistics. Milan is a fast and great city for whom can afford that. High salaries are hard to reach when you start with an average entry salary of around 25-27k. Again: there are also entry salaries of 40k but they’re just a tiny percentage of the total. The truth is that salaries in Milan are good but there’s a tremendous gap between gross and net salaries. Taxes are smashing the wealth of people and the government is planning to act on this - hopefully soon.
Olek on Sep 01, 2022:
It is bull**it. Please calculate the real power of value. For example in Poland, Wrocław average salary 2500net pln, 1l ON 7.70pln, small beer in pub 15pln...
Roger on Jul 26, 2022:
Salaries in Milan are not great but for sure the average here is too low otherwise the city wouldn't be so expensive.
The average Joe makes €1.600 but there are managers and executives alore with salaries anywhere between €100k and €500k.
Lets not forget that Milan is the business capital of the 7th largest economy in the world.
My salary is €120k gross for example. I'm 41 and most of my italian friends make more or less the same but it's true that there are a lot of people at my company who make a lot less.
Luca on Jun 23, 2022:
I make 56k per year plus various benefits in logistics after 4-5 years experience. Mind that I’m no engineer or programmer. I don’t think this is the average salary in Milan, in fact I feel quite lucky. On the other hand, I doubt that the average would be less than 40k yearly. All my university-educated friends in my age group make around that amount. It’s no high-life for sure, rents are out of this world. Nevertheless I don’t think the average should be set below 2k net per month.
Andrea on Apr 01, 2022:
I am Italian and I live in I am Italian and I live in Milan, I do a six months internsip for a famous auditing firm. My gross earnings are 800€ per month plus 100€ of ticket restaurant. I pay 600€ for a bedroom 3km far amway from Duomo. I've got friends working and living in London and Benelux, in addition, my girlfriend works in Paris.
In my opinion Milan is the worst city in Europe for purchasing power ahd working conditions even though you have a wide range of career opportunities. Furthermore, work loads in finance are massive, it is common to work after 8 pm.
Marco on Mar 29, 2022:
Many people are complaining about the cost of living in Milan. Yes, the city is expensive. Rents are absurd and the quality of housing desirable... BUT there is enormous wealth in this city. More than 1 in 6 in the city centre earns above 120k/year. Corriere della Sera published an article online about the topic. The 20145 postcode isn't the wealthiest, yet it has an average net salary of €71'000/year. We're talking about tens of thousands of people in a city that isn't that big.
CAP 20133 (CAP = postal code) represents the average income of the city of Milan, according to the article.

Salaries in Italy aren't sky-high, BUT it depends on the sector. If you studied law, it will be difficult to earn a good amount of money at the beginning of your career, but if you decide to work for Law Firms in the capital market segment, you can expect to make €2000-3300 euros/month (net) + benefits even before the State exam. This won't be the case if you specialise in civil or penal fields (in those cases, you'll struggle).
Milan on Feb 01, 2022:
@HG: your experience is pretty rare. The average person (actually no, the average college educated person) with 4 years experience in Milan make around 1,800€ net salary. To that you must add 1,200€ per month for rent and you are left with 600€ per month and still have to pay the ATM subscription, food, gym and the expenses when you go out on weekends. Very few people are able to save something, actually the majority get help from their family to pay part of the rent because otherwise they can't make ends meet.
HG on Jan 17, 2022:
Adding some of my experience as both me and my boyfriend live in Milan.

I have 4 yrs work experience, master degree, work in Fintech and after tax monthly 3000-3500 EUR, 14 months. (Annual gross 70k EUR)
My boyfriend has 7 yrs work experience, work in consulting and after tax monthly 3500-4000 EUR, 14 months. (Annual gross 100k EUR)

We can live a comfortable life and save around 30k per person per year in Milan.
Anonymous on Jan 02, 2022:
1600 EUR is a common ok salary in mid/small Italian cities and towns where you can rent a 1bhk for 300-400 EUR. if the ceiling of your career is such a salary you shouldn’t live in Milan, period
Karl on Nov 11, 2021:
I did a 6 months internship in this city. I run away as soon as I finished, the city is laughably overpriced compared to the salaries the average person get. I'm talking especially about rents for single rooms or a studio. Even my Italian colleagues complained and were angry that most of their salary ended up in paying their rent expense. I'm pretty sure it has the worst purchasing power (relative to the average salary) among ALL the cities in Europe (North, South, East, West). I'm in Amsterdam now and I pay for a room just 50€ more than what I paid in Milan but my salary is much higher, just terrible.
Mattia on Jun 07, 2021:
I was born and raised in Milan.
What can I say? The salaries are even lower than 1.600 euros per month. I can ensure you not so many people earn that much, regardless of their studies and/or working experiences.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really matter whether you got a diploma or you graduated from university: the salaries are ridiculously low, especially if compares to the prohibitive cost of living - as listed above.
The city center isn’t affordable at all for obvious reasons, but so are the suburbs, unless you’d be interested in living in a quite overcrowded neighbourhood with higher micro-criminality rates, and you would still be paying too much among rent, bills, etc…
The city isn’t large at all, it’s actually quite small considering its population which consequently makes it a very crowded and not so bike friendly city.
Furthermore, I solemnly believe it should be cleaner than it currently is: it’s sadly not rare to find garbage on the street as well as broken roads and sidewalks.
I wouldn’t suggest anybody to move to Milan unless they already had an extremely high income, otherwise life won’t be easy at all.
What many expats don’t understand is that nothing is gold here, even if Italy is geographically stunning as a country, but that doesn’t mean we all live well.
Anonymous on May 11, 2021:
Milano is really bella. The country is really beautiful. Even though the income might be tight. But this probably compensate! the city is small, either the country. so it does not matter where you live. center or suburb. italy has many beautiful destinations.
Anonymous on May 11, 2021:
Europe mostly and Italy for sure, are not good places for expats to live!
You will be given the job you are deserved (by your resume). The cost of living is much higher! Especially the rents.
In the city center only paying the rent (not utilities) is at least 1500 euros!
You can go to cheap chain stores like LiDl or Eurospin but ... !!!
Jobs are awful! Purchasing power is relay really bad!
Baggio on May 21, 2020:
For a midclass life in Milan as an expat you should land a 80k EUR gross yearly salary at least.
Don’t listen to italians that feel fine living with 1500 EUR a month, that’s not midclass.
Francesco on Dec 30, 2019:
Whoever listed the rent prices is so off the mark. They're really extremely inaccurate to the point I wonder if they really live in Milan or have ever looked for an apartment in the city.
I pay 800€ per a single room in a shared apartment (we're six living there) in the Porta Romana neighborhood. Nowadays that's pretty much the average price for a room if you want to live inside the Circonvallazione. People who pay less have contracts from some years ago or got a huge deal. Or live in run down apartments (pretty common for students in Milan unfortunately).
An average 1 bedroom apartment (bilocale) in good condition is no less than 1500€ in the city centre (in Milan the city center is considered the area inside the ring, the "Circonvallazione"). That's including the condo fees but non including the bills. 1100€ is at most the price for a "monolocale" which isn't a one bedroom apartment, but a one room apartment (studio apartment).
And a three bedrooms apartment in good condition in the city center is definitely way more than 2275€
Andrea on Dec 27, 2019:
For Paul

Sorry but the history is different. You are not well informed about Milan. I live in Milan.....
Paul on Dec 11, 2019:
I live in Milan and i've never seen an enormous number of bullshits. I'm talking of salaries. Young italians are stupid and unbelievably greedy. They want an enormous amount of money right after their degree, and i can safely say that some of them even refuse 2500 euros (which is a very possible salary). The whole brain-drain story is horribly laughable. Milan is way better even than Switzerland, which is getting poorer and poorer. In fact people from Canton Ticino are emigrating here in Lombardy. Guess what? Are they stupid? We're tired of the false stories about Italian salaries. We're doing fine. And the worst part is that people believe every shitty website. Come to Milan and you will see!
Jurke on Oct 14, 2019:
I've been living in Milan for almost two years now after I moved here from Spain and Germany before that. Honestly I wouldn't advise anyone to move to Milan to make money or in search for a better life, unless that person is a renowned fashion designer or works in finance. Obvious reasons are extremely high cost of living with tremendously high rental costs and unbalanced salaries. The net salaries described above are definitely way lower with the average being between 1000€-1300, unless these data have been written by people working in the areas described above. People live at an incredibly fast pace, which gives little time to rest and there's so much stressed people at every corner. Traffic is a mess, transportation is often unreliable and everything is just overpriced, with apartments being no exception. Although I do a job I like and hold a Master's degree and a PhD my work is underpriced and I would earn double or two thirds more doing exactly the same job in a number of other European countries. Which is roughly going to br the situation most of the people going to live and work there will find themselves in.
Elysia on Aug 10, 2019:
I'm not sure if the prices are correct or not but I'm think of moving to Milan in the future. I need a rough idea of the average Italian gets paid yearly and a nice place to live not too dangerous, but not too expensive as well. The average amount of money rent is, food, restaurants etc. If someone could tell me that would be perfect, Thank you!
Marco on Jul 12, 2019:
@Krishna: Completely wrong. Salaries in Milan are much lower to basically all Western European Cities, except maybe Spain and Portugal (not sure about these two).
Most people with a master degree are lucky to earn 500€ on their first job and the salary increases slowly.
I personally know people who works in finance with a master degree from Bocconi (top university in Milan) who gets 500-600€/month with 2 years experience.
Minimum 60,000€/year after 3 years experience in Milan? Gotta be kidding me. Your figures are way off
And prices did rise in the last few years, especially renting prices which are now on par (or higher) with the rest of the Western European capitals.