Cost of living index

Here’s something that should come in handy. These cost of living indices are handy to gauge how countries compare on affordability: Numbeo (SA is 42.5) and WorldData (SA is 34.5.)

According to World Data, South Africa is a 42.5 on the cost of living index (US is at 100. The Numbeo rankings place SA at 34.5 (and the US at 74.2).

I started out using Numbeo and WorldData for all my country write ups before realising that neither cover all the countries I am looking at. What seems to be a more comprehensive tool is LivingCost.org, which covers more countries and allows for city-city comparisons too.

DALL·E-2023-12-03-21.18.04-Create-an-ultra-wide-panoramic-image-with-a-3_1-aspect-ratio-of-a-sophisticated-chimpanzee-dressed-in-a-luxurious-emerald-green-velvet-suit-with-a-wh-1024x585-1

Cost of living is tricky to really gauge and the indices include a range of factors that are unlikely to concern nomads all that much, such as education, childcare and healthcare. Reducing entire coutries to a single score also ignores the range within a country, so I will also look for more specific comparisons as I develop this site. For now though, the Numbeo and WorldData rankings at least give a pretty good rough indication.

Also worth keeping in mind is that for me, living on the edge of Cape Town’s City Bowl means that my rent and cost of living is far higher than for someone living in a smaller town in SA, so a country with a higher cost of living index may well still work out as a cost-effective destination.