Cost of Living inKaunas, Lithuania
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Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Lithuania: $47,165/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 47% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
6.8 / 10
#19 globally
GDP per Capita
City Population
Monthly Costs
Rent
Food
Transport
Utilities
Education
Child Education
Public-school quality, expat access, instruction language, and homeschool legality for relocating families.
Public schools
Public-schooling rules are set nationally for Lithuania; Kaunas-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Good public schools
Assessment snapshot: 2022
Expat access
Resident families can use it
conditionalInstruction
Lithuanian
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
466
Below OECD avg
PISA 2022 · OECD avg ~480
Why this quality rating
Lithuania has solid PISA outcomes, particularly in reading, and has improved meaningfully over recent assessment cycles. The public system is well-structured.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident families can use public schools, which teach in Lithuanian. International English-medium programs exist mainly in Vilnius.
📋 Homeschooling
Legal with school supervisionHomeschooling is legal in Lithuania since 2020. Students must be enrolled in a school. Assessment and curriculum guidance comes from the school. Relatively new framework, still evolving.
Homeschool legality in Lithuania — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Childcare & Domestic Help
Estimate-only country fallback for the family-support costs we track in Lithuania.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$775-$1,025
Estimate-only country fallback
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$1,400-$1,800
Estimate-only country fallback
Source: curated family relocation research(derived country fallback)
Getting Around
Neighborhood mobility profiles are rolling out city by city.Kaunas is still missing a verified walkability, transit, airport, and rideshare profile.
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Lithuania.
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 solid hospital-bed capacity support this rating.
Public care
MixedA visible public hospital footprint support this rating.
Private care
MixedA meaningful tracked hospital and clinic network help, but the private footprint is not very visible yet and self-pay pricing transparency is still sparse.
UHC coverage
78/100
2023
Physicians
4.47/1k
2022
Hospital beds
5.71/1k
2022
Out of pocket
31%
2024
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
77.2 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
8/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
1.9/1k
2024
International patient readiness
LimitedMultiple facilities have websites and there is visible specialty depth help, but the private footprint is still thin and price transparency is still sparse.
Pricing transparency
LimitedMultiple facilities have crawlable websites help, but published self-pay prices are scarce.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in Lithuania 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 Kaunas, Lithuania · 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.
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 Kaunas compared with the US?
Your money goes about 2.2x further in Kaunas than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Kaunas cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Kaunas is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 47% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Kaunas.
How does rent in Kaunas compare with New York City?
Rent in Kaunas is about 87% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Kaunas?
Groceries in Kaunas are about 49% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 42% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Kaunas
Kaunas is Lithuania's second city, set at the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers in the country's central interior. About 289,000 people live in a city that served as Lithuania's provisional capital between 1919 and 1939 and now combines Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas University of Technology, the KTU LEAN cluster, and a growing biotech and IT sector. Lithuanian is the official language with English widely used in higher education and tech. Kaunas Airport offers low-cost European routes, and the Via Baltica road corridor and Rail Baltica project pass through the city, putting Vilnius within about ninety minutes by car or train. Climate is humid continental. Kaunas suits EU-mobile remote workers and tech professionals seeking a Baltic city at lower rents than Vilnius.
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