Cost of Living Calculator

Weight each spending category by its share of your budget and by how its price differs. A city 60% more expensive on housing but similar elsewhere needs far less than a 60% raise, because housing is only part of what you spend.

Because it moves the most and it varies the most by circumstance. Someone who owns outright faces a completely different comparison from someone entering the rental market, and a blended index cannot tell them apart.

It varies enormously, and a third of take-home is a common rule of thumb rather than a measured norm. Use your own actual figure — that is the whole point of the share being an input.

No. Income tax, local and state taxes and social contributions differ substantially between places and can outweigh the cost-of-living difference entirely. Work out net pay in both places, then compare on that basis.

Crowd-sourced price databases and government statistical agencies both publish them. Crowd-sourced figures cover more cities and are less reliable for any one of them, so it is worth checking two sources before trusting a number.

If the employer is asking you to move, yes — and with the category breakdown rather than a single percentage, because it is more persuasive and harder to dismiss. Location-based pay bands are common and negotiable.

Work out net pay in each country under its own tax and social contribution rules, then apply the cost-of-living comparison to the net figures. Comparing gross salaries across borders tells you almost nothing.

They are the largest hidden variable between countries. A salary in a country with employer-provided or public healthcare is not comparable to one where insurance and deductibles come out of net pay, and the gap can run to five figures.

On housing, usually. On transport, often less, because good public transport removes a car. On everything else the difference is smaller than people expect, which is why housing deserves its own line.

Whichever you will actually be doing. Rent and purchase price diverge sharply between markets — some cities are expensive to buy and moderate to rent, and the ratio between them varies enormously.

They cover more cities than official statistics and are less reliable for any single one, since sample sizes can be small. Checking two independent sources before trusting a figure is worth the extra minute.

The move itself, deposits and agency fees, a car if the new place needs one, professional relicensing, and the cost of visiting people you have left behind. The last is recurring and is almost never budgeted.