National price indexes are a compass, not a rent listing
Cost-of-living tables are one of the few public datasets that let you compare countries on the same basket. The World Bank’s International Comparison Program (ICP) is the backbone of the comparison in your Nessel account: food, housing at a national average, transport, restaurants.
What it is good for:
- Ranking whether a destination is broadly cheaper or dearer than where you live now
- Spotting that “cheap country” stories often collapse city and countryside into one number
- Keeping a second-country shortlist honest before you fly in for a neighborhood walk
What it is not:
- A lease
- A café budget for one district
- Proof that your salary will feel the same after tax, healthcare, and school
If two countries look similar on the index, the next question is local: which city, which neighborhood, which housing tenure. That is why neighborhood search and the national index both exist. Use the index to choose a country band. Use listings, walks, and official tax pages for the year you will actually spend.