Cape Town vs Johannesburg for couples
Cape Town and Johannesburg are both in South Africa, about 1,262 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 €2,529 a month for a couple living centrally in Cape Town and €2,599 in Johannesburg.
Taxes
Same country, same tax: South Africa is in our high tax tier.
Climate
Cape Town is 1°C warmer on average over the year: 17°C against 16°C in Johannesburg. Cape Town is drier, with about 592 mm of rain a year against 721 mm in Johannesburg (18% less).
Safety
Our safety score is country-level, so both cities get the same 30 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 50 Mbps median fixed download in both.
Language
Main languages in both: English, Afrikaans, Zulu. English proficiency is rated the same in both: some English.
Residency and visas
Same country, same rules: long-term residency in South Africa is rated possible, with conditions, with a self-funded route from about $2,271 a month in income.
Which one fits a couple
As two cities in South Africa, Cape Town and Johannesburg share every country-level figure, and no factor we score puts either clearly ahead. What sets them apart: Cape Town is 1°C warmer on average (17°C against 16°C); Johannesburg is wetter, with 721 mm of rain a year against 592 mm; Johannesburg is a major city (over 5 million people) and Cape Town a large one (1 to 5 million people); Cape Town is coastal and Johannesburg inland. They are 1,262 km apart.
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