Country guide · Egypt
Moving to Egypt: cost of living, salaries, taxes, visas
Cairo is among the cheapest major cities globally in hard-currency terms; a fast-devaluing pound; territorial-leaning taxation of locally sourced income.
Egypt — anchored by Cairo for our data — ranks among the least expensive large cities in the world when costs are measured in euros or dollars, a gap widened by repeated devaluations of the pound. New Cairo and Maadi are the established compounds for international residents.
Egypt generally taxes income sourced in Egypt rather than worldwide income, which can suit remote workers paid from abroad, though rules are evolving and professional advice is essential. Air quality in Cairo is a genuine drawback, and the pound's volatility means any figure should be read as approximate.
Data signals
What the numbers say about Egypt
The take-home math
Take-home pay in Egypt is shaped by a roughly 21% effective payroll deduction (income tax + social security), with VAT at 14%.
The main hub
Its primary hub, Cairo, carries a cost index of 10 (New York = 100).
Cost spread within the country
Across the 2 Egypt cities we track, the cost index spans 8 (Alexandria) to 10 (Cairo).
Income per capita
Average income in Egypt
Egypt's income per capita is about $18,230 (GNI, PPP-adjusted US$), per the World Bank (2024). No comparable national wage survey is published for Egypt, so this is an income proxy rather than an average-salary figure. Source: World Bank.
This is a country-wide figure. For what you actually need to earn in a specific city, see the salary-by-lifestyle breakdown on each city's cost-of-living page.
At a glance
Egypt relocation profile
Vs the catalog average
Is Cairo cheap or expensive, relatively?
Cairo's cost and rent index against the mean across every city Mundevo covers.
Index base: New York = 100. Catalog average is the unweighted mean across all cities Mundevo tracks, recomputed on every build.
Mundevo coverage in Egypt
Cost-of-living detail pages for each Egypt city in the catalog.
| City | Cost index | Rent index | Safety | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cairo | 10 | 5 | 55 | 10,000,000 |
| Alexandria | 8 | 3 | 52 | 5,200,000 |
Tax and visa landscape
Headline tax model + entry-point visa overview for relocators.
- Effective income tax: 10.0%
- Social security (employee): 11.0%
- Total payroll deduction: 21.0%
- VAT: 14.0%
- Currency: EGP
Effective rates assume a single salaried filer at country median wage. Special regimes (e.g. expat-favoring schemes) are not applied here — see the visa guide for those.
A dedicated visa guide for Egypt is not yet published. For current rules and category eligibility, contact the Egypt consulate in your country of residence.
Salary bands at Cairo — by role
Illustrative gross-salary bands for 6 senior IC roles in Cairo. Derived from NYC anchor × Egypt pay-tier multiplier. Cross-check Levels.fyi, Glassdoor before negotiating.
| Role | P25 | P50 | P75 | NYC anchor (P50) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software engineer | EGP 3,557,870 | EGP 4,416,667 | EGP 5,643,519 | $180,000 |
| Product manager | EGP 3,680,556 | EGP 4,784,722 | EGP 6,379,630 | $195,000 |
| UX / product designer | EGP 2,429,167 | EGP 3,202,083 | EGP 4,306,250 | $145,000 |
| Marketing manager | EGP 2,097,917 | EGP 2,870,833 | EGP 3,864,583 | $130,000 |
| Data scientist | EGP 3,312,500 | EGP 4,293,981 | EGP 5,643,519 | $175,000 |
| Finance analyst | EGP 2,699,074 | EGP 3,803,241 | EGP 5,398,148 | $155,000 |
Top relocation corridors
Closest peers by cost-of-living index — the moves most commonly considered alongside Egypt.