Cost of Living inLima, Peru
Image credit: Quado678
Purchasing Power vs. United States
Based on GDP per capita (PPP). Peru: $15,662/capita.
How Far Your Money Goes
Prices are 65% lower than the global benchmark (New York City = 100).
Income Category
Happiness
5.8 / 10
#66 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 Peru; Lima-specific enrollment notes are still being verified.
Quality
Mixed public-school option
Expat access
Available to residents
conditionalInstruction
Spanish
Language fit is more manageable.
PISA / outcomes
Qualitative only
Using curated quality notes for now.
Why this quality rating
Peru's public schools can work for local families, but quality varies and most expat households still prefer private or bilingual options.
Why the expat-access rating looks like this
Resident families can generally access public schools, but Spanish-medium instruction and uneven quality make the public route situational.
❓ Homeschooling
Not specifically regulatedPeru requires basic education but does not have specific homeschooling regulations. Some families use distance education or equivalency programs. Enforcement is limited. Growing expat homeschool community in Lima and Cusco.
Homeschool legality in Peru — 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 Lima, Peru.
Full-time nanny (5 days)
$575-$825
monthly · confidence 0.65
Live-in / 24-7 nanny
$1,050-$1,450
monthly · confidence 0.65
Source: curated family relocation research
Getting Around
The concrete mobility picture for Lima: airport access, urban transit, and rideshare practicality.
Airport
International airport
Jorge Chávez is Peru’s main international airport and anchors Lima’s long-haul and regional air access.
Urban transit
Metro, BRT, and bus
Lima has a useful transit spine through Metro Line 1 and the Metropolitano BRT, even if coverage is still less seamless than in stronger rail-heavy capitals.
Rideshare
Uber available
Uber operates in Lima and is a normal fallback for airport runs and cross-city trips outside the rail and BRT corridors.
Source: User-curated family relocation research (initial seed) (2026-04-14)
Healthcare
System strength, outcome signals, facility coverage, and self-pay visibility in Peru.
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
MixedThis is a broad country-level read based on coverage, staffing, beds, and spending.
Public care
MixedA visible public hospital footprint support this rating.
Private care
MixedA large 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
68/100
2023
Physicians
1.69/1k
2023
Hospital beds
1.56/1k
2023
Out of pocket
27%
2023
Outcome signals
Life expectancy
77.9 yrs
2024
Maternal mortality
51/100k
2023
Neonatal mortality
6.5/1k
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 Peru 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 Lima, Peru · Source: INEI (region-adjusted)
Price Comparison vs. US
Visa Information (US passport)
Short-stay entry
US passport holders can stay up to 180 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 Lima compared with the US?
Your money goes about 1.8x further in Lima than in the US, based on the current PPP estimate.
Is Lima cheaper or more expensive overall than New York City?
Lima is cheaper overall than New York City — overall living costs are about 65% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City) for Lima.
How does rent in Lima compare with New York City?
Rent in Lima is about 87% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City).
How expensive are groceries and restaurants in Lima?
Groceries in Lima are about 61% cheaper than the global benchmark (New York City), and restaurant prices are about 71% cheaper than the same benchmark.
About Lima
Lima is the capital of Peru and the political, financial, and demographic center of the country, with about 7.7 million residents along a coastal desert strip facing the Pacific. The city anchors Peruvian banking, mining headquarters, and most diplomatic missions, with relocator housing concentrated in Miraflores, San Isidro, and Barranco along the coast. The climate is unusual: virtually no rain year-round but persistent winter overcast and high humidity from May through October due to the cold Humboldt Current, with summers warm and sunny. Practical tradeoffs include heavy traffic congestion, water scarcity in the underlying hydrology despite the humid feel, and Spanish fluency that materially shapes daily life outside the international school circuit and the relatively concentrated expat zones.
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