Latin America rising

Expats: If you’re living in an expensive city in North America, Europe, or Asia, don’t think about moving to Latin America because you think things are cheaper there. If you’ve really got the itch to move, you may find Eastern Europe a good deal, but pretty much everywhere else will cost you.

The Expatistan Cost of Living Index shows that, from January to June, costs of living in the most cities stayed nearly identical relative to each other, while some other cities became much cheaper or more expensive. Tokyo is still by far the most expensive city in the world, followed by cities in Europe, Australia, and East Asia.

The most expensive cities in the world kept the same order with few exception: Oslo and Zurich swapped spots in No. 2 and No. 3, and Singapore jumped from No. 9 to No. 7. Slightly lower down, there were a few more changes. Two Australian cities, Brisbane and Adelaide, largely switched positions, with Brisbane going from No. 17 to No. 12 and Adelaide dropping from No. 13 to No. 22. Boston also fell several spots, and Stockholm climbed to take its place.

Most impressively to me, many of the cities’ index values almost didn’t change. For example, six months ago, Tokyo, which was and remains at No. 1, had an index value of 292. Now it’s at 291. That means, that six months ago, life in Tokyo was 2.92 times as expensive as life in Prague (the index’s base city, with a permanent score of 100), and now it’s 2.91 times as expensive, almost the same. Some cities rose by as much as 10 index points (10 percent more than the cost of living in Prague), but most cities near the top of the index didn’t change by more than about 5 points.

One noticeable change in the index is that several cities that had been below Prague, at the 100 score, are now above it. Ankara rose from 97 to 106 on the index, Lima from 96 to 102, Buenos Aires from 94 to 103, Monterrey from 91 to 104, Córdoba from 91 to 101, and Caracas from 85 to 101. This could, of course, be a result of Prague becoming cheaper—except that Prague didn’t become cheaper in comparison to cities at the top of the list (like Tokyo), or other Eastern European cities, like Warsaw, Budapest, Kraków, Bucharest, Sofia, or Belgrade, all of which have stayed below Prague. More likely to explain the jump in Lima, Buenos Aires, Monterrey, Córdoba, and Caracas is region-wide economic improvement across Latin America that is driving the cost of living up.

The full data is below. Do you see anything interesting? If so, please leave a comment.

Global Index

West and Southern Europe

East and Central Europe

Middle East

Asia

Latin America

Africa

Oceania

US and Canada