1. The basket
Each city's index is the weighted average of seven category sub-indices. Weights reflect typical household spending in OECD-member metro areas.
| Component | Weight | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | 38% | |
| Food & groceries | 22% | |
| Utilities | 12% | |
| Transport | 8% | |
| Leisure | 8% | |
| Other | 7% | |
| Healthcare | 5% | |
| Total | 100% |
2. Baseline
New York City = 100 (Numbeo convention). A city with an index of 72 is 28% cheaper than NYC on the same basket; an index of 134 is 34% more expensive.
3. Cross-validation
Monthly Numbeo crowdsourced data is checked against Eurostat HICP (Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices) on a quarterly basis. If the divergence between the two exceeds 5% for any sub-index, the city is flagged for manual review before publication.
4. Limitations
- Numbeo input is crowdsourced — small cities can have thin samples.
- Urban bias: figures describe city-centre living, not rural or suburban.
- Sub-index weights are global defaults and do not adjust for local consumption patterns (e.g. car-dependent vs transit cities).
- Rents reflect listings on international portals; informal-market rents are not captured.