Our Mission
Why we built GlobalCostData
Reliable cost of living data is scattered across paywalled reports, crowdsourced surveys with sample bias, and city-focused tools that ignore the broader economic context. GlobalCostData was built to fix that.
We aggregate, normalise, and cross-validate data from authoritative institutional sources — World Bank, ILO, Eurostat, UNDP, WHO, and GeoNames — to produce cost of living indices that scale from national level down to individual cities.
Every index uses New York City as a baseline of 100, so you can compare a studio apartment in Chiang Mai to one in Lisbon to one in Tbilisi using a single, consistent scale. No subscription required. No hidden methodology.
Who We Are
Independent — Toulouse, France
GlobalCostData is maintained by a small team of data analysts and expat researchers, based in Toulouse, France. The project is independent — not backed by venture capital, and not affiliated with any relocation service, visa agency, or financial product. We have no commercial interest in directing you toward any particular country.
Our research team draws on backgrounds in programmatic data publishing and applied economics. Our approach is transparent: all methodology is documented on the Methodology page, including which data points are derived estimates versus directly measured values.
GlobalCostData is part of a small ecosystem of data-focused sites — alongside TaxRatesByCountry.com — that share the same commitment to source transparency and institutional data standards.
Our Data Sources
Institutional, verified, open
We do not scrape consumer review platforms or rely on self-reported crowdsourced submissions as primary inputs. Our primary sources are institutional datasets with defined methodologies and update cycles:
| Source | Data Used | Update Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| World Bank Open Data | GNI per capita (PPP), GDP, price level indices, inflation rates | Annual |
| ILO (International Labour Organization) | Average net salaries, labour market indicators | Annual |
| Eurostat | EU country purchasing power parities, HICP | Annual / quarterly |
| UNDP Human Development Reports | HDI scores, education and health indices | Annual |
| OECD Data | Tax wedge, household disposable income, comparative price levels | Annual |
| IMF World Economic Outlook | GDP forecasts, inflation projections, fiscal indicators | Biannual |
| WHO Global Health Observatory | Health expenditure per capita, physicians per 1,000 | Annual |
| GeoNames | City and country reference data, population figures | Continuous |
| GlobalCostData Research | Derived indices, estimated values, expat scoring model | Monthly |
Data points that are derived estimates rather than directly measured are marked with a tilde (~) throughout the site. See our Estimated vs. Real Data section for details.
Transparency
Our complete data methodology — including the NYC baseline calculation, source hierarchy, update frequency, and the difference between real and estimated values — is documented in full on the Methodology page.