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Pakistan has been ranked as the third cheapest country to live in by the Cost of Living Index for Countries 2015 report published by Numbeo.com.
India is listed as the cheapest country and Nepal as the second cheapest country while Switzerland, Norway and Venezuela are the most expensive countries respectively, the report says.
Bangladesh is ranked as the 11th most cheapest country to live in. Afghanistan was not included in the list.
Pakistan's Rent Index was ranked at second place from the bottom followed by Bangladesh on the third position. Nepal is the only country with a cheaper Rent Index while Singapore is listed as the most expensive country with regard to Rent followed by Hong Kong and Qatar.
The detailed list includes information regarding the Cost of Living Index of 119 countries along with city-by-city data for every individual country. These figures are based on the Consumer Price Index.
Read: Half of country’s population living below poverty line
Within Pakistan, Rawalpindi (CPI 27.25) has been ranked as the cheapest city to live in followed by Rupo Chak (CPI 28.55), Karachi (CPI 31.58), Lahore (CPI 33.22) , Islamabad (CPI 34.68) and Sialkot (38.66).
The data is based on 7464 entries in the past 18 months from 573 different contributors.
Numbeo.com was launched in April 2009 and the research and available data is the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries worldwide. The website also claims that the information it provides is not influenced by any governmental organisation.
The data for each country are based on all entries from all cities in that country.
The website provides information on world living conditions including cost of living, housing indicators, health care, traffic, crime and pollution by taking into consideration the Consume Price Index, Rent Index and Groceries Index.
Read more
On DawnNews
Comments (41) Closed
Jan 23, 2015 10:55am
for a moment it felt like sarcastic headline...
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Jan 23, 2015 11:02am
This must be a joke as they have no idea about rocketing house rents in rawalpindi
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Jan 23, 2015 11:03am
Pakistan was at number 2 in 2014 that means the cost of living has been increased in an year.
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Jan 23, 2015 11:08am
India is not expensive to all but most expensive for Pakistani...even Visa not get them easily.
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Jan 23, 2015 11:08am
Cheapest to live in Pakistan where life is cheap sadly.
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Jan 23, 2015 11:10am
For an average Pakistani, it's pretty expensive but when you compare the cost of living of let's say to 'Greater Vancouver' area, Pakistan is CHEAP! but it all varies with the region along with hundred other economic factors.
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Jan 23, 2015 11:15am
Here also India is world number one!
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Jan 23, 2015 11:37am
It could be more
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Jan 23, 2015 12:18pm
Why not pakistan? its like bro-sis relation b/w pak and india. People know the meaning of being a cheap.
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Jan 23, 2015 12:24pm
What about the purchasing power index??
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Jan 23, 2015 12:25pm
yes it is 3rd CHEAP country in world..rest 2 may be from Africa or Afgan
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Jan 23, 2015 12:26pm
The more important measure is the purchasing power index given in the link in the article. That is the true measure of income vs. cost of living.
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Jan 23, 2015 12:37pm
@DM you dint see india and Nepal....
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Jan 23, 2015 12:47pm
please clear my confusion...if this is true then why ONE out of TWO people in a population of over 188 million in our beloved country live below the poverty line — defined as earning less than $2 a day, based on international standards for middle income countries?
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Jan 23, 2015 12:47pm
Atleast on this cheapest nation we Indians are very happy because being cheap in living and rent etc directly affects us and benefits us common man.
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Jan 23, 2015 01:14pm
ONLY if these people had calculated the cost of living from an average salary of a person living in Pakistan, India or whichever country, this data will be different. In, Norway, Switzerland people earn a lot more so they can spend a lot more while in Pakistan, Indian and Nepal people earn less so they spend less. Prices in some of the international standard stuff is almost same in Karachi if not more.
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Jan 23, 2015 01:43pm
It is relative to your income.
Managing to live on the what the average Pakistani earns is very hard.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:04pm
I doubt the people who conducted this survey know what they are talking. A holiday in Thailand can be cheaper than a holiday in Goa. Petrol is more expensive in many Indian states than it is in the US. Housing in all cities with the exception of Calcutta is expensive. Food prices have sharply gone up over the last two years.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:07pm
i think they have compared it with dollar , compare it according to salaries in pakistan, then u will realize , here 17 grade officer draws 40k monthly, not even 400$ , but he cant even have his own house if goes with his salary before 15 years.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:15pm
@Bhittai.. They have calculated what you are referring to as "Local Purchasing Power index" where India stands at ~66% which means out of the average salary of an Indian, we can buy 66% of the goods and services that an avg resident of NYC can buy out of their mean salary.
This is much better than other developing countries!!
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Jan 23, 2015 02:19pm
How do you assess all these? for example a man earning 5000 rivals in Qatar is forced to shell out 6000 riyals for two bhk in a min decent locality.The paying capacity is there.but that salary is not suffient for him to rent out a place for his family.roughly 75000 rupees can fetch a decent life in India or Pakistan. So this category of employees are left with substandard shared accommodation. That is why these countries squeeze out what ever you earn or else live cheap bachelor life.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:31pm
@imme apparently people are going to believe this random nameless guy on the internet than an accredited website that actually attains credible data and actually does some calculations.
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Jan 23, 2015 02:54pm
Amazing and interesting!
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Jan 23, 2015 03:11pm
Check Purchasing power index, where has double purchasing power than Pakistanis. We have an expression in Pashto: if a camel cost one taka, then where is the taka: means even if a camel is cheap but still i don't have money to buy it.
The measures or indices used around the world are some misleading and our ministers plays with measures to cheat people: If you evaluate take many indices to cover all the aspect of an object under evaluation
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Jan 23, 2015 05:07pm
The cheapest city in Pakistan is Peshawar.
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Jan 23, 2015 05:16pm
@Vectra If Modi can reduce the corruption, India's poor will bless him with their votes for another ten years at least. And the way he is going since the British left in June 2014 (according to Guardian from London), it looks to get better.
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Jan 23, 2015 05:40pm
I don't understand how to judge the meaning of cheapest, that is in relation to what? The earning vis a vis spending I. E., buying power or cost of living in one country vis a vis other or quality of life at a particular cost etc.
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Jan 23, 2015 05:40pm
and Indians are first and Bangladesh is on 2nd number Pak is on 3rd number I saw these updates couple of days ago
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Jan 23, 2015 05:44pm
india is most cheapest country of world because it in agriculture based country. after coming modi government, Inflation rate of indian has fallen in most Economical manner. after two or three year, India will be more strenghten in the case of economical developement and social development .
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Jan 23, 2015 07:00pm
Its good that subcontinent is in the lowest rent index. people are predominantly poor and the price has to be just above cost.
raghu
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Jan 23, 2015 07:04pm
@DM Please read article before commenting.
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Jan 23, 2015 07:18pm
Extremely dubious report. Avg. monthly salary according to the International Labour Organization, United Nations, is US$255 (ranked 71 out of 72 only Tajikistan is below). More than half of the population live below US$2/day, said by Ishaq Dar, Finance Minister (Dawn, June 3, 2014).
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Jan 23, 2015 07:31pm
Come to Islamabad and try to buy a house in sector E-11
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Jan 23, 2015 08:02pm
Natuarlly when one earns and five to eat it becomes cheap for the other four to live. It should always be measured by per capita earning and the factor of purchasing power, and in this case Pakistan is not a cheap place to live.
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Jan 23, 2015 09:55pm
Amazing we pakistani should be thankful to Almighty. We should look towards the positive aspect of this report & the potential of the country despite having bundle of issues & hardships as a nation we are facing.
I think good days are not far now. InshaAllah
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Jan 24, 2015 12:44am
We Pakistani people are very friendly nation. Tourist should visit Pakistan twice a year.
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Jan 24, 2015 07:08am
No wonder foreigners buy things in the market in truck loads. Hv interacted with foreigners who come here with a handbag and when they go, they take truck loads of cotton clothing and leather goods. Russians take suitcases full of common medicines, jeans, toothpaste, soaps, socks and roadside cotton clothes sold in kgs.
All Europeans stay and spend like lords considering the exchange rate and the cheap cost of living.
Good that way you get more tourists.
Apart fm that the labour class gets good food. Hv seen middle class cutting pockets especially to send children in best schools for education (spending 75% of their total income) where as labour class sends children to govt schools where education is free including books. Education is compulsory.
That way have seen that the quality of food labour class eats is far better than the middle class. Have seen that whilst getting the construction of my house completed and having a chat with them over a cup of tea.
God bless my Nation and gives it health, happiness and prosperity to all.
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Jan 24, 2015 09:27am
This really is a joke, because Rawalpindi is one of the most expensive cities in Pakistan, Lahore is far less expensive so is Faisalabad......
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Jan 24, 2015 04:07pm
Sure ! Sure ! cheapest country to live in if you have any other currency but Rs.
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Jan 25, 2015 06:02am
Nations of subcontinent can gain from tourism . Peace is the key to promote tourism.
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Jan 25, 2015 11:38pm
Impossible , Pakistan is one of most expensive , how about vat, gst, custom duuty which is added to all products which makes cost of living expensive, then fuel which makes transport expensive and electricity prices which makes utility expensive, i am overseas but when i come Pakistan and compare my spending it is expensive than most of countries i visited. Pakistan is an Agro based economy but imports fruits and vegetables, and exports has gone down badly, indutrialist had left Pakistan and started their industries in other countries, by looking at all this how can the report be true??????
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