Sourcing
What I pull, and from where
Every figure in a city guide or comparison traces back to one of the sources below, and each article restates its own in a Sources & method note at the foot of the page. I separate what a database can tell you from what only living somewhere can.
| Category | Where it comes from | How I treat it |
|---|---|---|
| Rent | Numbeo and Livingcost.org, cross-checked against local listings. | City-center one-bedroom, monthly, read as an indicative range. |
| Take-home wages | Numbeo, public wage trackers, and official statistics. | Median after-tax, monthly — the income a rent is measured against. |
| Single-person cost | Numbeo and Livingcost.org. | A range, never one figure; it swings with how a person lives. |
| History, economy, climate, policy | Government statistics, official publications, established reporting. | Cited where it carries the argument, not for decoration. |
| Sensory & personal detail | My own experience of a place. | Labeled as memory — and flagged where memory, not record, is the source. |
| Systems & infrastructure | Government notices, official operator disclosures (railway, transit, telecoms), and state media reporting. | Cited with the issuing agency and date; treated as time-sensitive, since rules and rates shift. |
| University tuition & fees | Official university admissions portals and TopUniversities.com (QS rankings). | Conflicting figures from different sources are shown side by side, never averaged into one number. |
| Calculator figures | The same rent, wage, and tuition figures already sourced in the site's own city, comparison, and university articles. | No separate database. A city without solid local wage data is left out of the relevant calculation rather than estimated. |
Reading the numbers
Three things to know before you lean on a figure
Costs move with neighborhood, season, and lifestyle. Treat every number here as indicative — a starting point to test against current reality, not a quote.
One exchange rate, one moment. Chinese figures are converted at roughly ¥7.2 = $1, read in mid-2026. Rates drift; the conversion is a snapshot, not a live feed.
Comparable on purpose. When two cities sit side by side, I hold the definition steady — after-tax median wage, city-center one-bedroom — so the comparison actually means something instead of comparing a gross salary here with a net one there.
My rules
The lines I hold myself to
The usefulness of these notes rests on a few things I refuse to do. These are mine.
- 01Record beats memory. When my recollection conflicts with the record, the record wins — and the text usually says where the two disagreed.
- 02Perspective is always labeled. Every guide tells you whether it's a city lived in, a city visited, or a city researched only from a distance.
- 03Hearsay stays hearsay. Second-hand claims are marked as second-hand, never dressed up as verified fact.
- 04Images are verified. A photo tagged with a city is used only once I'm confident it actually shows that place.
- 05No invented experience. I never fabricate a first-hand account. It's the one line that can't be crossed.
- 06No promises. No "guaranteed," no "100% secure." Figures are estimates, not assurances.
Freshness
When numbers go out of date
Cost-of-living data ages. I read figures at a point in time and label the year; a number that was right in mid-2026 may not be right the day you read it. Before you use anything here for a real decision — a move, a lease, an offer — check the current figure at its source.