New cities added on request

Posted By on 17/09/2012

Expatistan is a proudly crowdsourced project. It wouldn’t exist without users like you inputting prices from all around the world. The quality of the data is dependent on large numbers of people keeping prices fresh and accurate. For example, while four rolls of toilet paper will probably cost everyone in a given city about the same amount, dinner out for two in and Italian restaurant with wine and dessert could cost one expat couple more than another expat couple. With more prices, the average price of a good on Expatistan will more accurately reflect its true average in a city.

But just as Expatistan relies on lots of users, we also listen to and care about individual users. In fact, individual users help a great deal, such as by alerting us to errors on the site or outlandish prices.

Another way individual users can and do help is by requesting that new cities be added to the Expatistan database. Since there are tens of thousands of cities around the world, the database currently excludes many cities. But people regularly contact us to ask us to add new cities to the database, and we always comply. Here are the most recent cities we’ve added on demand:

  • Huntsville, Alabama (United States)
  • Darmstadt (Germany)
  • Charleston, South Carolina (United States)
  • Las Guaranas (Dominican Republic)
  • Palo Alto (United States)
  • Neuchatel (Switzerland)

The crowdsourcing that fuels Expatistan is not just a way to collect data; it’s also the site’s core ethos. We hope users participate with us as much as possible. That includes prices, of course, but it also includes requests for new cities, ideas for improvement, and feedback in general. If you have questions, suggestions, or comments, please always feel free to reach out by using the contact form on the home page or by emailing us directly.