Cost of Living inLyon, France
Image credit: Rijksmuseum
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). France: $54,799/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 27% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
6.6 / 10
#26 globally
GDP per Capita
City Population
Monthly Costs
Rent
Food
Transport
Utilities
Education
Child Education
Public-school quality + expat access, alongside international and private school cost — the two paths a relocating family weighs.
Public schools
Public-schooling rules are set nationally for France; Lyon-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Good public schools
Expat access
Available to residents
conditionalInstruction
French
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
France has a strong national public-school system and a credible public option for families planning real local integration.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident families can generally use it, but daily schooling is in French and local catchment placement still matters.
⚠️ Homeschooling
Legal but heavily restricted since 2022France tightened homeschooling laws significantly in 2022. Now requires prior authorization (not just declaration). Authorization is granted for limited reasons: health, disability, itinerant family, or specific pedagogical situation. Annual inspections required. Much harder than before for worldschooling families.
Homeschool legality in France — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
International & private schools
Childcare & Domestic Help
Current nanny and household-help pricing snapshot for Lyon, France.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$2,625-$3,275
monthly · confidence 0.65
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$3,050-$3,750
monthly · confidence 0.65
Source: curated family relocation research
Getting Around
The concrete mobility picture for Lyon: airport access, urban transit, and rideshare practicality.
Airport
International airport plus TGV hub
Lyon-Saint Exupery plus the city’s strong national rail position make Lyon one of France’s most practical non-Paris family travel bases.
Urban transit
Metro, tram, rail, and bus
Lyon has one of France’s strongest fixed-route mobility backbones outside Paris, with metro, tram, funicular-adjacent links, rail, and buses covering many practical family neighborhoods.
Rideshare
Uber and taxis available
App-hailed rides and taxis are routine fallbacks for airport transfers, hillier districts, and first/last-mile gaps beyond the strongest transit corridors.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in France.
Method: country metrics come from public system indicators, facility coverage reflects mapped providers we can inventory, direct pricing only reflects observed self-pay pages, and relative care cost can fall back to broad cost-of-living healthcare indices. Sparse pricing does not imply sparse healthcare availability.
Healthcare system
StrongGood national coverage, strong doctor availability, and deep nursing capacity support this rating.
Public care
GoodBroad public coverage, relatively low patient cost-sharing, and country-level outcomes are comparatively strong support this rating.
Private care
LimitedThe tracked private-style network still looks thin and self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse weigh on this rating.
UHC coverage
82/100
2023
Physicians
3.28/1k
2022
Hospital beds
5.65/1k
2022
Out of pocket
9%
2024
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
83.0 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
7/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
2.8/1k
2024
International patient readiness
LimitedCountry-level outcomes are comparatively strong help, but price transparency is still sparse.
Pricing transparency
LimitedPublished self-pay prices are scarce weigh on this rating.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in France yet.
This usually reflects low online price transparency rather than a lack of healthcare providers.
Notable facilities
System metrics: World Bank WDI · Updated 2026-06-01
Safety & Governance
Street Safety
Source: Numbeo where a city row is matched; otherwise World Bank WGI and country-level safety context.
Political Stability
World Bank WGI scale: -2.5 to +2.5.
Wages by Sector
| Sector | Median |
|---|---|
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Construction | — |
| Finance & Insurance | — |
| Healthcare & Social Work | — |
| Information & Technology | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
| Professional & Scientific Services | — |
| Real Estate | — |
2024 annual wages in Lyon, France · Source: Eurostat Regional
Price Comparison vs. US
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders can stay up to 90 days without a visa.
Long-Term Visa Programs
retirement
Visitor Visa France
working holiday
Programme Vacances-Travail (PVT)Quick comparison FAQ
Structured from the deltas already shown on this page — no invented facts, no extra data sources.
How far does your money go in Lyon compared with the US?
Your money goes about 1.4x further in Lyon than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Lyon cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Lyon is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 27% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Lyon.
How does rent in Lyon compare with New York City?
Rent in Lyon is about 78% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Lyon?
Groceries in Lyon are about 21% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 32% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Lyon
Lyon is France's third-largest city, sitting at the confluence of the Rhone and Saone rivers in the east-central Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes region. With roughly 521,000 residents in the commune and over two million in the metro, it functions as the country's secondary economic capital, anchored by banking, biotech, and a serious gastronomy scene built around the bouchon tradition. Relocators get a TGV that reaches Paris in two hours and Geneva in under two, plus an extensive metro and tram network that makes a car genuinely optional. The continental climate brings cold winters and hot summers, and the cost of housing runs substantially below Paris while remaining above most French regional capitals, which is the central tradeoff.
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