The high cost of living in a city has a significant impact on individuals and communities, affecting everything from economic mobility to quality of life.
A high cost of living has several immediate effects, one of which is how easy it is for people to get by. Housing, transportation, and other essential expenses can take up a sizable amount of many people’s salary, leaving little money for savings or discretionary expenditures. Financial strain might result from this, making it challenging to accumulate money over time.
Economic mobility may be hampered by the high cost of living. People who are born into low-income families frequently struggle to advance economically, especially if they reside in a high-priced metropolis.
Furthermore, the general economy may be impacted by the high cost of living. As an illustration, firms may find it difficult to recruit and keep staff in cities with high cost of living. This may make it more challenging for businesses to develop and prosper, which may have an impact on the regional economy.
With that being said, it is important to note which cities across the globe are the most expensive, especially if you choose to compare and contrast with your current city resident, as a result, Numbeo, one of the world’s most profound data and research platforms, has created a methodology to compute data that determines the cities with the highest cost of living.
The ten African cities with the highest costs of living are listed in this article.
The following variables influence the overall index that Numbeo generates: Rent index, grocery index, restaurant index, Cost of Living Plus Rent Index, an estimation of consumer goods prices including rent, and local purchasing power are all included in the Cost of Living Index (Excluding Rent), which is a relative indicator of consumer goods prices, including groceries, restaurants, transportation, and utilities.
Numbeo uses user inputs and manually gathered data from reputable sources (such as grocery websites, taxi company websites, websites run by governments, newspapers, other polls, etc.) to gather data. Twice a year, manually gathered data from reputable sources are entered. The Numbeo website provides a more thorough explanation of the process.
Below are 10 African cities with the highest cost of living, a total of 571 cities were cited in Numbeo’s original list;
1. Douala Cameroon 54.0 (Cost of Living Index)
2. Dakar Senegal 48.4
3. Addis Ababa Ethiopia 44.5
4. Abidjan Ivory Coast 44.4
5. Port Louis Mauritius 42.8
6. Harare Zimbabwe 42.4
7. Johannesburg SA 39.4
8. Lagos Nigeria 37.8
9. Gaborone Botswana 36.6
10. Pretoria South Africa 35.7
Source: Business Insider Africa
