Transparency
Methodology & Data Sources
Last updated: September 2026
How the cost of living comparator works
The cost of living comparator adjusts your current budget using relative cost-of-living indices between your origin and destination cities.
Equivalent = Your budget × (Destination index ÷ Origin index)
For example, if Paris has an index of 82 and Lisbon has 58, a budget of 3,000 in Paris becomes approximately 2,122 in Lisbon, a 29% reduction.
Data sources
United States
Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), Regional Price Parities (RPP). Published annually. Covers metropolitan areas.
Europe
Eurostat, Purchasing Power Parities and Comparative Price Levels. Published annually. City-level data for major EU capitals, regional for others.
Canada
Statistics Canada (StatCan), Consumer Price Index by CMA. Published monthly. City-level for Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal.
United Kingdom
Office for National Statistics (ONS), Regional Consumer Price Indices. Published quarterly.
Rest of world
World Bank, International Comparison Program (ICP). Published periodically. Country-level data, adjusted for major cities using supplementary urban indices.
Precision levels
Each result includes a precision badge indicating the granularity of the underlying data:
Index derived from city-specific price surveys (e.g., BEA metro RPPs, Eurostat capital indices).
Index from a broader region or state that includes the city. Less precise but still more accurate than national averages.
National average index. Used when no city or regional data is available. May differ significantly from specific cities within the country.
Known limitations
- Cost-of-living indices represent average spending patterns. Your actual costs depend on your lifestyle, housing choices, and consumption habits.
- Indices do not account for income tax differences between countries. Two identical gross salaries may yield very different net incomes.
- Exchange rate fluctuations can significantly affect comparisons between different currency zones. Our tool converts at approximate rates.
- Data is updated periodically. The most recent source year is shown for each result.
- For cities where only country-level data is available, actual costs in the specific city may vary significantly from the national average.
Budget calculator methodology
The detailed budget calculator combines cost-of-living indices with household-specific multipliers to estimate spending across categories (rent, groceries, transport, utilities, etc.). Rent estimates use a separate rent index that may diverge from the general cost-of-living index.
All budget amounts are editable: use the estimates as a starting point and adjust based on your personal knowledge or research.
Net salary calculator: how a jurisdiction enters the tool
Every scale is read from the official text that sets it (finance act, tax code, tax administration, social security body), never from a firm's summary or an aggregator. Each country page cites that primary source, with its address, and shows the month it was last verified. That date is the date the sources were checked, not the date of the page: a wording fix does not move it.
Four checks before publication. The primary text is in hand for the income tax and for the employee share of contributions, otherwise the jurisdiction waits. A second reader goes back over every rate and threshold with the sources reopened. The engine replays a reference set of results per country on every change, and any difference has to be explained before it is accepted. At each new tax year, and at every reform known during the year, the scales are verified again.
The calculation reproduces income tax and mandatory employee contributions for a resident employee, and non-resident cases where the page offers them. Outside the calculation, unless the page says otherwise: benefits in kind, bonuses under a specific regime, bilateral tax treaties, local schemes the selector does not offer. Results are estimates; they are not the opinion of a tax lawyer or a chartered accountant.
Where tax depends on the region, the calculator goes down to the level that sets the scale: 26 Swiss cantons, 51 US states (District of Columbia included), 13 Canadian provinces and territories, 10 Chinese cities, 5 Spanish autonomous communities, Scotland within the United Kingdom, and the French Pacific collectivities (French Polynesia, New Caledonia), which have their own tax systems.
Jurisdictions covered, primary source and last verification
Table generated from the calculator's data, in alphabetical order. Sub-jurisdictions (cantons, states, provinces, cities, autonomous communities, Scotland) are listed on their country's page.
Citing our data
Figures published on app.expatriation.io may be reused without prior request, with the credit Source: EXPATRIATION.IO, net salary calculator, [country], retrieved on [date] and a link to the page used. Each calculator page states the date its official source was last verified.
Verifiable facts about the consultancy and a founder profile are available on the press page (in French).
About EXPATRIATION.IO
EXPATRIATION.IO is an international mobility consultancy founded by Sidney LAKEHAL. Its tools provide data-driven guidance for international mobility decisions, use institutional data sources exclusively and maintain full transparency about methodology, sources, and limitations.