Cost of Living inIslamabad, Pakistan
Image credit: Mohsinkhawar
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Pakistan: $5,500/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 76% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
4.7 / 10
#106 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 Pakistan; Islamabad-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Limited public-school fit
Expat access
Usually not practical for expats
not practicalInstruction
Urdu / English
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Pakistan's public-school path is too uneven to be the default recommendation for relocating expat families.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident enrollment can be possible, but Urdu-medium instruction, uneven quality, and limited expat-facing support make the public route usually impractical.
❓ Homeschooling
Legal gray areaPakistan has compulsory education laws but limited enforcement of school attendance. Homeschooling exists in a gray area; many families use correspondence or online schools. The British Council and AKU-EB offer remote examination services usable by homeschoolers.
Homeschool legality in Pakistan — check current regulations before committing.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
International & private schools
Childcare & Domestic Help
Estimate-only country fallback for the family-support costs we track in Pakistan.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$200-$300
Estimate-only country fallback
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$350-$500
Estimate-only country fallback
Source: curated family relocation research(derived country fallback)
Getting Around
Neighborhood mobility profiles are rolling out city by city.Islamabad is still missing a verified walkability, transit, airport, and rideshare profile.
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Pakistan.
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
LimitedCoverage looks thinner, hospital capacity looks tighter, and households still pay a large share themselves weigh on this rating.
Public care
LimitedPublic coverage looks thinner, public funding looks lighter, and patients still shoulder a meaningful share of costs weigh on 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
56/100
2023
Physicians
1.16/1k
2021
Hospital beds
0.63/1k
2020
Out of pocket
53%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
67.8 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
155/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
36.1/1k
2024
International patient readiness
LimitedPrice transparency is still sparse and headline outcomes are less reassuring weigh on this rating.
Pricing transparency
LimitedPublished self-pay prices are scarce and few facilities expose web pages we can verify weigh on this rating.
Facility coverage
Self-pay pricing visibility
No verified self-pay prices are published for the tracked facilities in Pakistan 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 |
|---|---|
| Administrative & Support Services | — |
| Agriculture & Farming | — |
| Arts, Entertainment & Recreation | — |
| Construction | — |
| Education | — |
| Finance & Insurance | — |
| Healthcare & Social Work | — |
| Hospitality & Food Service | — |
| Information & Technology | — |
| Manufacturing | — |
| Mining & Quarrying | — |
| Other Services | — |
| Professional & Scientific Services | — |
| Public Administration & Defence | — |
| Real Estate | — |
| Retail & Wholesale Trade | — |
| Transport & Logistics | — |
| Utilities | — |
2025 annual wages in Islamabad, Pakistan · Source: PBS LFS (region-adjusted)
Price Comparison vs. US
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders need advance travel authorization or a visa before entry.
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 Islamabad compared with the US?
Your money goes about 3.2x further in Islamabad than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Islamabad cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Islamabad is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 76% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Islamabad.
How does rent in Islamabad compare with New York City?
Rent in Islamabad is about 95% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Islamabad?
Groceries in Islamabad are about 81% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 79% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Islamabad
Islamabad is the federal capital of Pakistan, a purpose-built planned city of roughly 602,000 in the city core (with a much larger metropolitan footprint including Rawalpindi) sitting at the foot of the Margalla Hills in northern Punjab. Built in the 1960s on a grid of numbered sectors, it functions primarily as the administrative center for federal ministries, diplomatic missions, and military headquarters, with much of the country's commercial activity concentrated in Karachi and Lahore instead. The climate is humid subtropical with hot summers, a brief monsoon, and mild winters that occasionally see snow on the Margalla peaks. English and Urdu are both widely used in government and business. Relocators should weigh tighter security protocols common to capital diplomatic zones, occasional protest-related lockdowns, dependence on Karachi or Lahore for some specialized services, and a generally quieter pace than the commercial capitals.
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