WilliamSmith wrote: ↑February 11th, 2022, 1:11 pm
Not sure which site is best, but this is the one I've used the most while looking at all countries over the past year, and I like it:
https://livingcost.org/
.....
When I first started looking up some of the lower cost countries that were vastly nicer than the US, some of them sounded too good to be true, but then I looked it up and found actual apartment listings in various countries independently that confirmed how well you can live on only a fraction of the income we need here for comparable apartment that's in a much nastier and more dangerous area.
The data of this webpage are fairly realistic, but it's about LOCALS, and not really about foreigners.
We ranked 9294 cities in 197 countries by quality & cost of living (13 factors assessed) to find the 100 best places in the world to live and work for singles and families.
7 indicators are country-specific:
Human Freedom Index (The Cato Institute)
Gross Domestic Product per capita (The World Bank)
GDP per capita based on purchasing power parity (The World Bank)
Life expectancy (The World Bank)
Homicide rate (WHO, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime)
Mortality caused by road traffic injury (The World Bank)
Corruption Perceptions Index (transparency.org)
6 indicators are city-specific:
Average salary (our data)
Average salary divided by cost of living (our data)
Cost of living (our data)
Annual average air quality (iqair.com)
Distance adjusted airports score (ourairports.com)
Distance adjusted universities score (edurank.org)
The last point reflects observation that good cities tend to have good universities.
However of course they cannot offer other important details, which could make a stay for a foreigner considerably more expensive or even impossible:
for example:
Possible medical fees in case you have no health insurance - a local health insurance which is for sure not cheap if it offers a high cover, especially if you are not so young anymore.
Visa requirements, often not such a small amount of money is required as a guarantee money for a long stay permit
How to qualify for a working permit, if you still have to work for a living....
Cheap rent is not everywhere available for foreigners, and often you cannot even buy property, not even a small condominium unit
Locals in some cheap countries are sometimes not foreigner friendly, you might face a lot of criminality and you need to consider additional security, like to live in a guarded village or condominium building.
Political instability, which requires you to be ready to leave quickly anytime.
Foreigners often prefer some foreign food, which has to be imported, expect it much more expensive than in your own Western country
and so on...
Be aware, as a foreigner you will need often more money compared to what you see in this list.
ADVICE, just my opinion, if you live as a foreigner somewhere, even over many years, NEVER bring all your money into this country, never change all your money in a local currency which might be difficult or with high loss to change into another currency. ALWAYS keep a reasonable amount in a banking account in your own country or elsewhere, in case you have to leave quickly - it might be because of medical issues, of political unrest, of natural disasters.. in case you have to move out, you should always know where to go. Keep always an escape route/destination in your mind.