How expensive is your country compared to the rest of the world?
Pick your country. See where its basket sits against New York, how it ranks against 24 others, and whether local incomes keep up.
The anchors of the basket.
The most expensive country in this set runs at roughly 5.9× the least expensive — on the same headline basket of housing, groceries, transport and services. New York sits at 100 by convention; everything else stretches above or below it.
Twenty-five countries, sorted by cost basket.
Each bar is the country's headline cost-of-living index against New York at 100. Your country is highlighted; continent colours tint the rest so you can scan regions at a glance. The +/ − chip shows how the basket compares to New York directly.
Does your country's income keep up with its prices?
Each dot is a country. The horizontal axis is the cost-of-living index; the vertical axis is the median PPP income. The quadrants name themselves: top-left is the affordable-and-rich corner — where local wages outpace local prices the most. Bottom-right is the squeeze.
What the cost basket alone can't tell you.
The country basket averages. Your basket is not the average.
Switzerland's headline index runs at 131.5 — above the NYC baseline. But two people in the same country can live a thirty-percent different life on the same headline number, depending on rent, transport and how often they eat out. And every cross-border purchase loses 3–5% to hidden FX margins on bank wires. Wise transfers at the mid-market rate so the basket you pay matches the basket you see.