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Cost of living abroad – top 20 places to live

10/05/2022
| By AfriForum Wêreldwyd

Where are the top 20 most affordable places to live in terms of buying power, rent cost, groceries and restaurant prices? On the worldwide index Johannesburg perfoms the best of all South African cities in terms of cost of living, and it is ranked number 323. Pretoria is hot on its heels in 325th place, Durban at 334 and Cape Town in 344th place out of 483 cities.

Sydney is the top performer in Australia at 28th place, followed by Brisbane (36), Melbourne (52) and Perth (55). Auckland in New Zealand is number 31, followed by Wellington (44), Hamilton (56) and Christchurch (71). Nice in France boasts 33th place. Israel also fares very well in the top 50 with Tel Aviv-Yafo (21), Petah Tikva (27), Haifa (32), Beersheba (35) and Jerusalem (40).

In England London ranks highest in 43rd place. The top 20 places are however dominated by Switzerland, Norway and the USA:

Cost of living – top 20 citiesCost of living – top 20 countries
1. Hamilton, Bermuda1. Bermuda
2.    Basel, Switzerland2.    Switzerland
3.    Zurich, Switzerland3.    Norway
4.    Lausanne, Switzerland4.    Iceland
5.    Bern, Switzerland5.    Barbados
6.    Geneva, Switzerland6.    Jersey
7.    Beirut, Lebanon7.    Israel
8.    Stavanger, Norway8.    Denmark
9.    Honolulu, USA9.    Bahamas
10.  Oslo, Norway10.  Singapore
11.  Santa Barbara, USA11.  Guernsey
12.  New York, USA12.  Hong Kong
13.  Bergen, Norway13.  Luxembourg
14.  Reykjavik, Iceland14.  Australia
15.  Trondheim, Norway15.  Japan
16.  San Francisco, USA16.  Ireland
17.  Tromso, Norway17.  The Netherlands
18.  Oakland, USA18.  New Zealand
19.  Berkeley, USA19.  France
20.  Saint Helier, Jersey20.  South Korea

Quality of life – top 20

Quality of life rankings are determined by the cost of life, quality of health care, safety and crime, buying power, property prices versus income, traffic, and climate. Cape Town is highest on the list for South African cities and is ranked at 137, while Durban is in 143rd place and Pretoria 155th out of 250 cities around the world. Here are the top twenty cities in the world in terms of quality of life:

Quality of life – top 20 citiesQuality of life – top 20 countries
1. Canberra, Australia1. Switzerland
2.    Adelaide, Australia2.    Denmark
3.    Raleigh, USA3.    The Netherlands
4.    Charlotte, USA4.    Finland
5.    Zurich, Switzerland5.    Australia
6.    Perth, Australia6.    Iceland
7.    Basel, Switzerland7.    Germany
8.    Austin, USA8.    Austria
9.    Eindhoven, The Netherlands9.    New Zealand
10.  Wellington, New Zealand10.  Norway
11.  Victoria, Canada11.  Sweden
12.  Seattle, USA12.  Estonia
13.  Madison, USA13.  Oman
14.  Colombus, USA14.  Luxembourg
15.  Geneva, Switzerland15.  USA
16.  Brisbane, Australia16.  Japan
17.  Richmond, USA17.  Slovenia
18.  The Hague, Netherlands18.  Spain
19.  Dallas, USA19.  Czech Republic
20.  Oklahoma, USA20.  Portugal

All information in this article was sourced from numbeo.com as in April 2022.

Also read: Cost of living abroad

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