Capetonians might be surprised to find that the Mother City is not the most expensive place to live in Africa. According to reports by Data group Numbeo and expat portal Expatistan, Pretoria actually takes the top spot.
Both groups released their own 2020 Cost of Living indices to determine the most expensive places in the world to live. Numbeo calculated value using New York as a central reference and included 440 cities, while Expatistan used Prague and included 288 cities.
“To calculate each city’s Price Index value, we start by assigning a value of 100 to a central reference city (that happens to be Prague),” explains Expatistan in the report. “Once the reference point has been established, the Price Index value of every other city in the database is calculated by comparing their cost of living to the cost of living in Prague. Therefore, if a city has a Price Index of 134, that means that living there is 34% more expensive than living in Prague.”
Numbeo’s 2020 Cost of Living index is a relative indicator of consumer goods prices, including groceries, restaurants, transportation and utilities. Cost of Living Index doesn’t include accommodation expenses such as rent or mortgage. If a city has a Cost of Living Index of 120, it means Numbeo estimates it is 20% more expensive than New York (excluding rent).
Numbeo places Pretoria in the top spot as the most expensive city in Africa, followed by Johannesburg and then Cape Town. However, Expatisan’s top three is made up of Port Louis, Mauritius, Pretoria and then Johannesburg. Cape Town is in sixth place.
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