Alexandria vs Cairo for couples
Alexandria and Cairo are both in Egypt, about 180 km apart. Every figure below comes from the data behind our city pages: an estimated monthly cost for a couple, tax tier, annual climate, safety, healthcare, internet speed, language and residency rules.
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Side by side
Source: the datasets behind our city pages. Cost is our model estimate (a country-level cost index scaled for city size); tax tiers are assigned by hand from each country's top marginal income tax rate and overall tax reputation; temperature from the Open-Meteo archive (2019 to 2023 averages); rainfall from TerraClimate (1991 to 2020 normals); safety and healthcare are our own country-level estimates; internet from the Ookla Speedtest Global Index; English from the EF English Proficiency Index; residency from our hand-reviewed residency dataset (not legal advice); short-stay entry from the passport-index dataset.
Factor by factor
Cost of living
Close on cost: we estimate about €1,988 a month for a couple living centrally in Alexandria and €2,048 in Cairo.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: Egypt is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Cairo is 2°C warmer on average over the year: 23°C against 21°C in Alexandria. Cairo is drier, with about 22 mm of rain a year against 174 mm in Alexandria (87% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 58 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 50 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 50 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: Arabic. English proficiency is rated the same in both: limited English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in Egypt is rated possible, with conditions.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Cairo is 2°C warmer on average (23°C against 21°C); Alexandria is wetter, with 174 mm of rain a year against 22 mm; Cairo has more people in the city proper, though both are major (over 5 million people); Alexandria is coastal and Cairo near the coast. They are 180 km apart.
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