Bengaluru vs Kolkata for couples
Bengaluru and Kolkata are both in India, about 1,560 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 €1,969 a month for a couple living centrally in Bengaluru and €1,947 in Kolkata.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: India is in our low to medium tax tier.
Climate
Kolkata is 3°C warmer on average over the year: 26°C against 23°C in Bengaluru. Bengaluru is drier, with about 913 mm of rain a year against 1,736 mm in Kolkata (47% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 55 out of 100.
Healthcare
Our healthcare score is country-level, so both cities get the same 55 out of 100.
Internet
Our broadband figure is country-level: about 70 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: Hindi, English. English proficiency is rated the same in both: some English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in India is rated hard to obtain.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in India, Bengaluru and Kolkata share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Kolkata is 3°C warmer on average (26°C against 23°C); Kolkata is wetter, with 1,736 mm of rain a year against 913 mm; Bengaluru has more people in the city proper, though both are major (over 5 million people); Bengaluru is inland and Kolkata near the coast. They are 1,560 km apart.
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