Numbeo
by Numbeo
"Crowd-sourced global database for cost of living and quality of life comparisons"
Rating
4.5/5
Overview
In April 2009, Mladen Adamović, a former Google employee, launched Numbeo from Belgrade, Serbia. The site began as a side project to help people compare living costs between cities. Today it ranks among the largest crowd-sourced databases of its kind, covering cost of living, housing, crime, healthcare, traffic, pollution, and climate across thousands of cities worldwide.
Numbeo's data comes from two streams: user submissions and manual collection. Twice a year, the team gathers prices from supermarket websites, taxi company fare pages, and government statistics. This manually verified data carries triple weight in the calculations. More than 30 automatic and semi-automatic filters screen for spam, blocking entries from known proxies and Tor nodes. Currency exchange rates update almost hourly, pulling from the European Central Bank and other feeds.
The platform generates a suite of indices: cost of living, purchasing power, property price to income ratio, healthcare, crime, traffic, pollution, and climate. A composite quality of life index combines eight sub-indexes. These metrics are freely accessible to anyone. Revenue comes from on-site advertising and a Premium API subscription for commercial users. Since 2012, the site has been operated by NUMBEO DOO Beograd-Palilula, a private limited company run by Adamović.
Key Features
- Cost of living indices for cities and countries worldwide
- Property price to income ratio and purchasing power indices
- Healthcare quality index based on user and official data
- Crime and safety indices with detailed breakdowns
- Traffic commute time and pollution indices
- Climate data including temperature, rainfall, and sunshine hours
- Composite quality of life index combining eight sub-indexes
- Multilingual interface with optional user accounts
- Premium API for commercial data access
Specifications
| Data Sources | User submissions, manual collection from supermarket websites, taxi company websites, government institutions |
| Filtering | 30+ automatic and semi-automatic filters, blocks public proxies and Tor nodes |
| Currency Updates | Almost hourly, using European Central Bank and other feeds |
| Manual Data Weight | Three times higher than user input |
| Languages | Multilingual |
| API | Premium API subscription available |
| Registration | Optional for data submission |
Pros & Cons
Pros
- • Comprehensive, free data on dozens of metrics across thousands of cities
- • Frequently updated with near-hourly currency exchange rates
- • Crowd-sourced model allows for broad geographic coverage
- • Manual data collection from official sources adds reliability
- • Multilingual platform accessible to a global audience
Cons
- • Accuracy can vary due to crowd-sourced nature and lack of peer review
- • Data can be manipulated by users, though filters mitigate this
- • Some cities have sparse data depending on user contributions
- • No formal verification process for individual submissions
- • API pricing is not publicly transparent
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Numbeo accurate?
How does Numbeo collect its data?
Is Numbeo free to use?
Who owns Numbeo?
How does Numbeo compare to Expatistan?
Keywords
Sources
Product Info
- Brand
- Numbeo
- Manufacturer
- NUMBEO DOO Beograd-Palilula
- Category
- Data Platform
- Released
- 2009-04
- Price
- Free
- Availability
- Available
- Founder
- Mladen Adamović
- Founded
- April 2009
- Headquarters
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Company Type
- Private limited company
- Popularity Rank
- 6030
- Number of Cities Covered
- Thousands
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