Cheapest cities in North America

Ranked purely on affordability: rent, groceries and everyday costs. Limited to cities in North America.

48 cities ranked

Overview

Guadalajara tops our ranking of cheapest cities in north america at 8.0/10, just ahead of Monterrey and Guatemala City. Choosing where to live is easier with numbers in front of you than with a gut feeling. Cheapest cities in North America is exactly that: a data-driven answer, not a listicle opinion. Ranked purely on affordability: rent, groceries and everyday costs. We isolated every city in North America from the full 303-city database and sorted that regional subset purely by cheapest, so the comparison stays fair within the region instead of getting diluted by cities on other continents. Average safety across this list sits at 6.2/10 and average climate at 6.4/10 — both well above a random sample of world cities, which says as much about the filtering as it does about any individual entry. Merida posts the strongest individual safety score in this group at 8/10, a detail the blended ranking above can obscure if safety happens to matter more to you than to the average reader. If you've already decided on North America and just need to narrow it down by cheapest, this is the fastest way to do it — for a fuller picture, cross-reference with the overall livability ranking for the same region. The full ranking, full scorecards and links to each city's dedicated page are below.

Top pick

Guadalajara

8.0/10 overall

Most affordable here

Guadalajara

8/10 cost score

Average safety score

6.2/10

across 48 cities

Full ranking

Curious how the top two stack up criterion by criterion? Compare Guadalajara vs Monterrey directly →

Methodology

Same single-criterion method as our worldwide rankings (only cheapest counts), applied only to cities within North America so the comparison isn't skewed by cities on other continents. Want different priorities? Set your own weights in the recommender.

Understanding the criteria

Same logic as our worldwide single-criterion rankings: only cheapest decides the order, just filtered down to one region so you're not comparing across continents you've already ruled out.

Tips for using this ranking

→Compare the top pick here against the equivalent worldwide ranking — a city that leads its continent can still trail the global top 10 by a wide margin.
→Use this list to narrow down within North America, then switch to the recommender to weigh in your other priorities before committing.

Who this ranking is for

This ranking is most useful for Budget-conscious movers — movers for whom affordability outweighs every other factor, Safety-first movers — people relocating somewhere unfamiliar who weigh personal safety above all and Balanced movers — people without a single dominant priority, weighing all criteria evenly. If none of those match your situation, the recommender tool lets you set your own weights instead of relying on any preset list.

Best for budget-conscious movers

Guadalajara

Best for safety-first movers

Vancouver

Best for balanced movers

Vancouver

Strengths & limitations of this ranking

What this method gets right

+Comparing only within one region avoids the trap of comparing, say, a Southeast Asian city's cost of living to a Scandinavian one.
+The single-criterion method means the ranking is fully reproducible from the underlying scores.

What it doesn't capture

−It says nothing about how these cities compare globally — a regional #1 can still trail the worldwide top 10 by a wide margin.
−Only one criterion counts here, so a city's other strengths or weaknesses are invisible in this specific ranking.

How are these scores calculated?

Every city on CityMatch is scored 1-10 on seven criteria — cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet — and those seven numbers are combined into the overall score shown throughout the site using a consistent, automated formula (an equal-weighted average by default, or your own weighting via the recommender tool). The same method is applied identically to every city, so scores are comparable across the full database.

Sources & data provenance

The current dataset is an internally curated starter dataset built for this version of the site, reflecting each city's general reputation on each criterion rather than a live feed from a single external provider. It is not yet sourced from a specific third-party API. If that changes, this section will be updated to name the exact sources in use.

Last updated: 17 July 2026

Frequently asked questions

Which city ranks #1 for "cheapest cities in north america"?

Guadalajara tops this list with a score of 8.0/10. The next best are Guadalajara, Monterrey, Guatemala City.

What's the most affordable city on this list?

Guadalajara is the most affordable, scoring 8/10 on cost of living (10 = cheapest).

What's the safest city on this list?

Merida posts the strongest safety score here at 8/10, ahead of the 47 other cities on this list.

How is this ranking calculated?

Every city gets a 1-10 score on cost of living, safety, environment, transport, climate, healthcare and internet. This list's average safety score is 6.2/10 and average cost-of-living score is 5.4/10 across 48 cities.

Is this ranking kept up to date?

Yes — every score on this page is recalculated automatically from the same underlying dataset each time the site is rebuilt, so the ranking always reflects the current numbers rather than a static, one-off list. See the "How are these scores calculated?" section for the full methodology.

Related rankings

Safest cities in North America Cleanest cities in North America Best climate cities in North America Best transport cities in North America Best healthcare cities in North America

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