The 'Cheap Date Index': Here's how much it costs to go out around the world

Aarthi Swaminathan
·Reporter
Updated

Playing that delicate but difficult game called dating is one thing. Paying for it is another. And everywhere is a little different.

A “cheap date” in Zurich, Switzerland, for example, usually costs around $203 — the most expensive among global cities — compared to $42 in Cairo, Egypt, according to a report by Deutsche Bank.

Deutsche Bank defined the cost of a date as cab rides, dinner or lunch for two at a pub or diner, soft drinks, two movie tickets, and a couple of beers.

Here's how much a date costs around the world.
Zurich is "by far the costliest place to go out on a date.” (Source: Deutsche Bank, David Foster/Yahoo Finance)

Associated Deutsche Bank Research analysis found that “Zurich is again the place to find a long-term partner early in life and persuade them to stay at home at night, eat in, watch the telly and save your high disposable income or risk seeing it erode away on your partner.”

Runners up included three Scandinavian cities: Oslo, Norway at $165 and Copenhagen, Denmark at $158, and Helsinki, Finland at $150.

‘A friend of mine has already watched Aquaman 7 times’

The biggest reason for dates being so expensive in these European cities is because of the high cost of living, the analysis found.

For example, while one liter (around 34 ounces) of Coca-Cola costs $0.74 in Istanbul and $2.40 in New York City, the same bottle costs $2.98 in Copenhagen and a whopping $4.73 in Oslo.

Cinema tickets told a similar story: Movie patrons would pay $3.60 for a film in Istanbul. Their counterparts in Copenhagen pay more than 5 times as much $16.

beautiful couple with umbrella near Eiffel Tower, honeymoon in Paris, romantic moment
Couple with umbrella near Eiffel Tower

And a basic dinner for two afterwards, albeit at a “neighbourhood pub”?

That would come up to roughly $14 in Buenos Aires. In Zurich, you’d splash out nearly $72. And interestingly, that’s a drop from 2014 when that same combo would have cost nearly $79.

Tokyo makes an appearance at number 5, with dates costing $148.

New York City came in at number 6, with the date costing around $143.

Factoring in the likelihood that single men and women aren’t just dating one specific person just once, the numbers can add up, as one Twitter user explained:

Bargain cities: ‘Get to see the Pyramids... for free!’

On the flip side, city dwellers in Cairo, Egypt spent the least on dates at around $42, followed by Bangalore, India and Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tourists ride camels during a visit to the Giza Pyramids, near Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, May 21, 2019, two days after a tour bus struck an improvised explosive device near the site, wounding more than a dozen foreign tourists. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Tourists ride camels during a visit to the Giza Pyramids, near Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, May 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

And whether it’s due to the cost of taxis — Cairo and Bangalore saw the cheapest rates for taxis on a business day, according to Deutsche Bank Research — or cheap movie tickets (Cairo and Bangalore were cheapest here too), single men and women can enjoy a night out without worrying about their wallets.

“Five dates in Cairo cost the same as one in Zurich,” the report’s authors noted, and “you get to see the Pyramids and the Nile for free!”

Aarthi is a writer for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @aarthiswami.

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