Would you be middle class in Oslo? Bangkok? Mumbai?
The hard way to figure that out would be to look at how much local currency your dollars would buy, then figure out how far that currency would stretch to cover rent, food and other essentials.
The easy way: the Big Mac Index, or at least a version of it.
The Big Mac Index, created by The Economist, has long been used as a way to illustrate the shifts in purchasing power of different currencies. A McDonald's Big Mac sandwich that costs $3.54 in New York, for example, costs 1,550 pesos in Chile.
Investment bank UBS takes the concept further, translating each currency into units of work. Thus a Big Mac that takes 14 minutes to earn in New York takes nearly an hour in Budapest. (The hourly wage used for New York was $19, though of course that shifts constantly with exchange rates.)
The 2009 version of the UBS survey (.pdf file) adds another good with near-universal familiarity: The iPod. A worker in Zurich or New York labors just nine hours to buy an 8gb iPod Nano; the same purchase takes a month of nine-hour days in Mumbai.
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The cost of living figures in the chart below are based off New York prices; if the cost-of-living column for Taipei, Taiwan, reads 48.3, for example, the cost of living is 48.3% of that in New York.
Also worth noting is UBS' measurement of the number of hours worked each year: Workers in Cairo and Seoul, South Korea, worked 50% more hours than those in Paris.
| City | A Big Mac (minutes) | An iPod Nano (hours) | Annual hours worked | * Cost of living |
|---|---|---|---|---|
19 | 13.5 | 1,745 | 64.4 | |
30 | 24.5 | 1,827 | 54.6 | |
19 | 16.0 | 1,884 | 49.6 | |
45 | 66.0 | 2,165 | 41 | |
21 | 16.0 | 1,775 | 65.3 | |
44 | 73.0 | 2,052 | 42.5 | |
19 | 14.0 | 1,717 | 59.8 | |
58 | 62.5 | 1,756 | 36.4 | |
62 | 45.5 | 1,827 | 45.7 | |
19 | 13.0 | 1,698 | 67.6 | |
42 | 63.5 | 1,712 | 35.7 | |
59 | 68.5 | 1,909 | 41.8 | |
57 | 99.0 | 2,033 | 37 | |
82 | 105.0 | 2,373 | 31.9 | |
126 | 97.0 | 1,744 | 76.6 | |
12 | 11.5 | 1,825 | 72 | |
17 | 11.0 | 1,658 | 81.8 | |
49 | 122.5 | 2,166 | 28 | |
34 | 35.0 | 2,273 | 62.2 | |
18 | 20.0 | 2,215 | 78.4 | |
15 | 10.0 | 1,807 | 76.3 | |
15 | 13.5 | 1,704 | 70.6 | |
17 | 10.0 | 1,830 | 85.5 | |
27 | 12.5 | 1,738 | 74.4 | |
14 | 19.0 | 2,295 | 75.2 | |
48 | 56.0 | 2,152 | 58.9 | |
136 | 93.0 | 2,172 | 37.3 | |
26 | 41.5 | 1,913 | 36.2 | |
45 | 82.0 | 1,960 | 38.5 | |
41 | 52.0 | 2,050 | 29.8 | |
58 | 86.5 | 1,963 | 35.6 | |
23 | 19.5 | 1,792 | 57.8 | |
34 | 32.0 | 1,870 | 48.1 | |
13 | 11.0 | 1,762 | 69.9 | |
13 | 9.5 | 1,928 | 72.7 | |
15 | 10.0 | 1,791 | 69.8 | |
20 | 15.0 | 1,582 | 62.2 | |
27 | 15.5 | 1,653 | 63.1 | |
25 | 23.0 | 2,142 | 48.9 | |
88 | 128.5 | 2,032 | 28.7 | |
129 | 95.0 | 2,260 | 34.3 | |
13 | 10.0 | 1,937 | 69.6 | |
27 | 16.0 | 1,808 | 64.4 | |
15 | 10.5 | 1,842 | 59.6 | |
21 | 36.0 | 1,763 | 50.4 | |
61 | 177.0 | 2,196 | 24.9 | |
20 | 13.5 | 1,692 | 69.5 | |
158 | 160.0 | 1,976 | 37.6 | |
14 | 9.0 | 1,955 | 100 | |
18 | 15.0 | 1,680 | 56.6 | |
21 | 10.5 | 1,771 | 88.1 | |
20 | 15.0 | 1,594 | 76.6 | |
38 | 43.0 | 1,859 | 43.6 | |
42 | 51.0 | 1,798 | 44.2 | |
51 | 56.0 | 1,847 | 44.9 | |
27 | 19.5 | 1,771 | 69.4 | |
69 | 69.5 | 2,195 | 36.9 | |
40 | 46.5 | 1,802 | 48.9 | |
27 | 22.0 | 2,312 | 50.9 | |
30 | 56.5 | 1,946 | 48.9 | |
36 | 27.5 | 2,088 | 70.7 | |
56 | 78.0 | 1,993 | 39.3 | |
20 | 11.0 | 1,777 | 65.5 | |
14 | 9.5 | 1,747 | 56.6 | |
20 | 23.5 | 2,074 | 48.3 | |
30 | 39.5 | 1,762 | 41.3 | |
24 | 22.0 | 1,916 | 57.3 | |
12 | 12.0 | 1,997 | 85.3 | |
12 | 10.5 | 1,868 | 63 | |
17 | 14.0 | 1,746 | 68.9 | |
41 | 74.5 | 1,749 | 41.7 | |
31 | 45.5 | 1,756 | 42.4 | |
15 | 9.0 | 1,896 | 84.7 |
* The cost-of-living figures are based off New York prices; if the cost-of-living column for Taipei reads 48.3, for example, the cost of living is 48.3% of that in New York.
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