Switzerland has the highest cost of living in the world, while Cameroon has the highest cost of living in Africa.
The Numbeo database has just updated its cost of living index for the first half of 2024.
Internationally, Switzerland leads the way with an index of 101.1, followed by the Bahamas (85), Iceland (83), Singapore (76.7) and Barbados (76.6), which completes the top 5.
The Cost of Living Index (excluding rent) measures the relative prices of consumer goods such as food, restaurants, transport and utilities, excluding housing costs.
To collect this data, Numbeo relies on information provided by users as well as manually collected data from reliable sources such as supermarket websites, taxi company websites, government institutions, newspaper articles and other surveys.
For the African continent, the cost of living index varies considerably from country to country. At the top of the regional rankings is Cameroon with an index of 37.3, 72nd in the world.
It is followed by Zimbabwe with an index of 37.2 (73rd in the world) and Mauritius with an index of 37.1 (74th in the world). South Africa comes fourth with an index of 34.5 (78th in the world).
Nigeria and Ghana rank 86th and 90th respectively, with indices of 31.4 and 30.9. Kenya and Botswana follow closely behind with indices of 30.2 and 30.1, ranking 92nd and 93rd in the world.
Finally, Morocco and Uganda complete the African top 10 with indices of 29.5 and 29.1, 96th and 100th in the world respectively.
Algeria is ranked 11th with a cost of living index of 28.9, followed by Tunisia in 12th place with an index of 28.1.
