Australia versus United Kingdom Cost of Living comparison
There are a few Cost of Living ranking sites available to compare the cost of living in each country, with one, Mercer, being very popular.
In this page we compare two sites with the following 2015 Rankings. Both have London followed by Sydney as the two most expensive UK/Australia Cities. The Expatisan site has almost twice as many cities listed, with 7 Australian Cities compared the 6 with Mercer, and 12 UK cities compared to 5 with Mercer.
Expatistan 2015 Cost of Living rankings
- London, United Kingdom 270
- Sydney, Australia 213
- Cambridge, United Kingdom 209
- Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom 209
- Melbourne, Australia 205
- Brisbane, Australia 204
- Perth, Australia 199
- Aberdeen, United Kingdom 186
- Canberra, Australia 185
- Glasgow, United Kingdom 184
- Edinburgh, United Kingdom 176
- Bristol, United Kingdom 175
- Adelaide, Australia 175
- Leeds, United Kingdom 174
- Birmingham, United Kingdom 172
- Manchester, United Kingdom 171
- Gold Coast, Australia 165
- Belfast, United Kingdom 161
- Sheffield, United Kingdom 153
Mercer 2015 Cost of Living rankings
- London, United Kingdom
- Sydney, Australia
- Melbourne, Australia
- Perth, Australia
- Canberra, Australia
- Brisban , Australia
- Adelaide, Australia
- Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Aberdeen, United Kingdom
- Glasgow, United Kingdom
- Belfast, UK
If we compare just the 11 Cities that are in both rankings, we see that the 3 most expensive Cities; London, Sydney and Melbourne are the same position in each list, and the lowest cost one, Belfast, is also the same in each. The remaining 7 are only slightly different.
Perth, placed at 4 or 5 is the next closest in the two surveys. Brisbane is either position 4 or 6, Canberra is either 5 or 7, Adelaide is either 7 or 9, Birmingham and Glasgow are both either 8 or 10, with Aberdeen being the furthest apart in the two surveys at either position 6 or 9.
Mercer | Expatistan |
1 London | 1 London |
2 Sydney | 2 Sydney |
3 Melbourne | 3 Melbourne |
4 Perth | 4 Brisbane |
5 Canberra | 5 Perth |
6 Brisbane | 6 Aberdeen |
7 Adelaide | 7 Canberra |
8 Birmingham | 8 Glasgow |
9 Aberdeen | 9 Adelaide |
10 Glasgow | 10 Birmingham |
11 Belfast | 11 Belfast |
Adding in a Third Cost of Living Site, Numbeo, we get the following ranks, with CoL ranks from Numbeo.
Mercer | Expatistan | Numbeo | Rank |
1 London | 1 London | 1 London | 92.58 |
2 Sydney | 2 Sydney | 2 Perth | 85.57 |
3 Melbourne | 3 Melbourne | 3 Sydney | 83.85 |
4 Perth | 4 Brisbane | 4 Brisbane | 78.46 |
5 Canberra | 5 Perth | 5 Canberra | 77.23 |
6 Brisbane | 7 Canberra | 7 Melbourne | 76.36 |
7 Adelaide | 8 Glasgow | 8 Glasgow | 76.29 |
8 Birmingham | 9 Adelaide | 9 Adelaide | 76.00 |
10 Glasgow | 10 Birmingham | 10 Birmingham | 74.43 |
11 Belfast | 11 Belfast | 11 Belfast | 67.90 |
Melbourne appears very different in the Numbeo ranks, being in 7th position compared to 3rd in the other two surveys.
Combing the three surveys, we could get a ranking such as:
Combined | |
1 | London |
2 | Sydney |
3 | Perth |
4 | Melbourne |
5 | Brisbane |
6 | Canberra |
7 | Adelaide |
8 | Glasgow |
9 | Birmingham |
10 | Belfast |
London, Sydney and Belfast each remain in the same positions.
www.numbeo.com
www.mercer.com.au
www.expatistan.com