Cost Of Living Values Have Increased Rapidly Over A Short Period Of Time

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Above is a virtual chart mapping the world with regard to the cost of living using the City of New York as the baseline with a score of 100. Having travelled to Europe and Dubai over the last 12 months I would say this global map highlighting the cost of living is fairly accurate. The cost of living has risen alarmingly over the last decade and do think people have lost the sense of value. The scariest part is these gaps seem to be getting bigger as the years tick by.

I live in South Africa and SA has a score of 23.3 so roughly 75% cheaper than New York. Dubai or UAE has a score of 48.7 so roughly half the cost of living in New York and double that of SA. The worrying part about seeing these huge differences in prices is that many countries within the next decade will be forced to stay at home because any form of international travel will be out of reach for the average person. Looking at the global map above this would rule out 80% of the world if nothing changes on the current economic path. This is a scary scenario and one I am all to aware of and why I need to move my family to a yellow/orange region in order to not fall behind.

What the chart does not do is highlight a certain city for example it gives a score for France or the UK on an average, but not necessarily reflecting Paris or London prices. The same would apply to New York with a base line of 100, but would not reflect costs elsewhere in the country.

What we have to remember everything is relative to the salaries being earned versus the cost of living. For this reason it is hard to compare and why when we are travelling we are always doing currency conversion calculations in our head if something is expensive or not. I can tell you coming from SA you give up on the conversions as everything is expensive and out of sync with what you know. You are in for a hiding no matter what you eat or drink or where you stay.

Just to give you a few examples a Starbucks large coffee in Johannesburg would cost you around $2.60, in London $4.33 and in New York is at $7 which is nuts. rentals would reflect something similar but the catch here is we are all earning different salaries in different currencies having different conversion values. I would guess the average salary in New York would be at least 3 x that of someone working in Johannesburg.

Earlier this year when I was in the Algarve i found the cost of living similar to that of Johannesburg which was pleasing on the pocket. Portugal is ranked at number 39 with a score of 36.8 so roughly 50% more expensive which I would say is more what Lisbon's prices would be pushing this score up and averaging out when taking into account the outlying towns and regions.

The same would apply to South Africa with the index as I would say Cape Town has a higher cost of living than Johannesburg and Johannesburg would be pricier than Bloemfontein. Nothing is ever equal if you are travelling and why regions around a country will have higher or lower prices which is fueled by demand.

Around 10 years ago I spent a week in New York and in total 30 days in the US on an extended family holiday and the New York leg of the trip in particular was so much more expensive. A South African would have to earn 3 x as much to be on a par with a New Yorker and the tables are turned when those coming from countries like the UK to SA with everything being at half the price. This is when Cape Town goes out of sync from the rest of the country and would say the tourist hot spots are closer to London prices. If the locals are not around then you know you are paying a premium price.

Posted Using INLEO