Emirate among world's most affordable expat destinations; Indian cities cheapest to live in
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| According to Numbeo’s latest mid-year 2015 Cost of Living Index, Dubai ranks at #212 out of the 517 cities that its index ranks [Patrick Castillo] |
Three UAE cities – Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah – stack up as the more affordable cities among the more than 500 cities ranked for a mid-year 2015 cost of living index.
Compiled by Numbeo, which claims to be the world's largest database of user-contributed data about cities and countries worldwide, the index calculates the ranking based on a range of costs, including rentals, groceries, travel, eating out and clothing, etc.
According to Numbeo’s latest mid-year 2015 Cost of Living Index, Dubai ranks at #212 out of the 517 cities that its index ranks, while Abu Dhabi is ranked at #278 and Sharjah stacks up at #280 among the world’s most expensive cities.
As a comparison of the cost of living for residents, the three UAE cities rank behind other major expat hotspots including Aberdeen (#15) and London (#18) in the UK, San Francisco (#19), New York (#20) and Washington (#24) in the US, Perth (#23), Adelaide (#32) and Sydney (#47) in Australia, Singapore (#53), Wellington (#54) and Auckland (#87) in New Zealand, Hong Kong (#123), Toronto, Canada (#132), Tokyo, Japan (#135) and Doha, Qatar (#205).
Regional Top 10 most expensive cities
| |
205
|
Doha, Qatar
|
212
|
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
|
232
|
Ad Dammam, Saudi Arabia
|
236
|
Beirut, Lebanon
|
262
|
Irbil, Iraq
|
269
|
Bahrain, Bahrain
|
278
|
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
|
280
|
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
|
283
|
Muscat, Oman
|
285
|
Amman, Jordan
|
[Source: Numbeo]
According to Mercer’s 2015 Cost of Living Survey published last month, the annual increase in cost of living over the last year rose steeply in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The Mercer rankings pegged Dubai as the 23rd most expensive city in the world in 2015 (up from a rank of #67 last year).
UAE capital Abu Dhabi, too, became more expensive since last year – moving from #68 in 2014 to #33 in 2015, as per the Mercer rankings.
Even as that ranking pegged Dubai and Abu Dhabi as more expensive than the Numbeo rankings calculated using user-data, both UAE cities were considerably cheaper even in the Mercer list than the other expat hotspots such as Hong Kong, Zurich, Singapore, Geneva, Tokyo, London and New York, among several others.
Dubai’s rankings as an affordable city are impacted by higher rental values, with the emirate ranked as the #14 most expensive on the rent index, which forms a part of the overall calculations.
Regionally, only Doha in Qatar has a higher rent index ranking, stacking up as world’s #10 most expensive city for rentals. Abu Dhabi is ranked at #18 while Sharjah emerges at a much more affordable #143 in the list.
World’s Most Expensive Cities: Rent Index
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1
|
Monaco, Monaco
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247.08
|
2
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Luanda, Angola
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133.83
|
3
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San Francisco, CA, United States
|
108.81
|
4
|
Hamilton, Bermuda
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108.27
|
5
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New York, NY, United States
|
100
|
6
|
Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea
|
98.82
|
7
|
Hong Kong, Hong Kong
|
88.58
|
8
|
Kowloon, Hong Kong
|
85.99
|
9
|
London, United Kingdom
|
84.6
|
10
|
Doha, Qatar
|
75.87
|
11
|
San Jose, CA, United States
|
73.18
|
12
|
Boston, MA, United States
|
72.38
|
13
|
Brooklyn, NY, United States
|
72.27
|
14
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Dubai, United Arab Emirates
|
72.09
|
15
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Singapore, Singapore
|
71.26
|
16
|
Geneva, Switzerland
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70.15
|
17
|
Zurich, Switzerland
|
68.62
|
18
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Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
|
66.4
|
19
|
Zug, Switzerland
|
65.25
|
20
|
Washington, DC, United States
|
64.04
|
[Source: Numbeo]
Globally, in the latest Numbeo rankings, Swiss cities emerge as one of the most expensive while those in India make the cut as the world’s most affordable.
Hamilton in Bermuda has been ranked as the world’s #1 most expensive city, followed by Swiss cities of Geneva, Zurich, Zug, Basel and Lausanne. Interestingly, seven out of the world’s top 10 most expensive cities are in Switzerland.
Global Top 10 most expensive cities
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1
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Hamilton, Bermuda
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2
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Geneva, Switzerland
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3
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Zurich, Switzerland
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4
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Zug, Switzerland
|
5
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Basel, Switzerland
|
6
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Lausanne, Switzerland
|
7
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Stavanger, Norway
|
8
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Bern, Switzerland
|
9
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Tromso, Norway
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10
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Lugano, Switzerland
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[Source: Numbeo]
On the other hand, all of the world’s 10 most affordable cities are in India, with Thiruvananthapuram ranked as the world’s least expensive city according to the mid-year 2015 ranking.
In fact, Indian cities account for 28 of the world’s Top 30 most affordable cities according to the latest index. Only Rawalpindi in Pakistan (#13) and Chisinau in Moldova (#27) punctuating Indian cities’ dominance of the most affordable cities list.
India Dominates World’s Least Expensive Cities: Top 30
| |
517
|
Thiruvananthapuram, India
|
516
|
Coimbatore, India
|
515
|
Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), India
|
514
|
Madurai, India
|
513
|
Mangalore, India
|
512
|
Bhubaneswar, India
|
511
|
Kochi, India
|
510
|
Ahmedabad, India
|
509
|
Nagpur, India
|
508
|
Kolkata, India
|
507
|
Surat, India
|
506
|
Hyderabad, India
|
505
|
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
|
504
|
Guwahati, India
|
503
|
Ludhiana, India
|
502
|
Chennai, India
|
501
|
Lucknow (Lakhnau), India
|
500
|
Amritsar, India
|
499
|
Jaipur, India
|
498
|
Jalandhar, India
|
497
|
Indore, India
|
496
|
Nasik, India
|
495
|
Bangalore, India
|
494
|
Vadodara, India
|
493
|
Vijayawada, India
|
492
|
Visakhapatnam, India
|
491
|
Navi Mumbai, India
|
490
|
Chisinau, Moldova
|
489
|
Chandigarh, India
|
488
|
Goa, India
|
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