Technical article
Kathmandu or Pokhara: What the Official Numbers Say About a Month
How much more does a month cost in one than the other?
Picture a couple named Dan and Helen. Both are 64. They have been reading about Nepal. They are choosing between Kathmandu and Pokhara. They ask one thing. How much more does a month cost in one than the other?
I went to the official pages first. The Nepal Rastra Bank is the central bank, and it publishes the household survey and the consumer price index. Here is what they say.
What the central bank survey shows
The most recent household spending survey I could read was collected from 13 February 2014 to 12 February 2015 and published in 2016. It gives the average monthly spending of a household, in Nepali rupees (NPR).
| Area | Average monthly household spending |
|---|---|
| Rural Nepal | NPR 20,904 |
| National | NPR 23,883 |
| Urban Nepal | NPR 26,411 |
| Western Development Region (includes Pokhara) | NPR 25,651 |
| Kathmandu Valley | NPR 29,748 |
Kathmandu Valley is the highest area in the survey. The survey does not give a figure for Pokhara alone. The closest line is the Western region, which is much larger than the city.
My arithmetic: NPR 29,748 is about 16% above NPR 25,651. That is a gap between a valley and a region, and it should not be read as a gap between two cities.
What the price index adds
The bank's price index, with 2023/24 as its base year, collects prices in markets in both cities. Kathmandu is one of five urban markets in the valley. Pokhara is a market in Kaski district. So both cities are watched.
The weights are national, though. Housing and utilities make up 16.66% of the basket, and food and drink make up 35.49%. The page gives no separate basket for each city. It states: "Price data is collected regularly from designated market centres on weekly, monthly and quarterly basis."
What is left open
- A current rent for a flat in either city, from an official page.
- A figure for Pokhara alone.
- What a retiree from abroad spends. The survey describes local households, with local habits, in 2014 and 2015.
- Any change in prices since the survey, other than the national index.
If I gave you a neat monthly number for each city, I would be filling the gap from memory. I will not do that.
You could…
- Read the survey tables yourself, at the bank's website, and check the area names against the cities you have in mind.
- Ask a landlord in each city for a written monthly rent, and set it beside the survey gap.
- Plan a month in each city on a short stay before you sign anything long.
When the only official number is a decade old, how much weight would you give it?
Figures are estimates for planning, based on public data. Date read: 10 October 2026.
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