Methodology & data
We combine public cost-of-living indices with approximate local salary benchmarks. All outputs are indicative and for inspiration only — not for financial, tax, legal, or relocation decisions. See terms of use.
Cost-of-living source
City indices come from Numbeo (Cost of Living Index excluding rent). Copenhagen is treated as ≈ 100 on that scale; other cities are stored as comparable index values in our catalog and refreshed periodically (last data pass: 2026-05 in the app bundle).
Purchasing power formula
For home city H and destination D:
factor = H.numbeoColIndex ÷ D.numbeoColIndex
equivalentSalary = yourMonthlySalary × factor
Amounts stay in your home currency (the symbol you type). A factor above 1 means your money buys more there; below 1 means less. We round equivalents to whole units for display.
Status thresholds (vs home)
- Better than home — factor ≥ 1.55
- Similar to home — 0.75 < factor < 1.55
- Worse than home — factor ≤ 0.75
These cutoffs are fixed in the app so labels stay consistent across sessions.
Local average comparison
Typical gross monthly salaries per city are stored separately (city-salaries.js).
To compare your purchasing power with a local earner, we:
- Convert both salaries toward USD using approximate FX rates (updated occasionally).
- Adjust for cost of living between your home city and the destination.
- Express the gap as a percentage above/below the local average.
FX is a simplification — real paychecks depend on tax residency, benefits, and contract currency.
Limitations
- Rent excluded from the Numbeo index; housing can dominate budgets.
- Household differences — family size, commute, and lifestyle are not modeled.
- Crowd-sourced data — Numbeo reflects contributor surveys, not official statistics.
- No tax or visa modeling — net pay and work rights vary widely.
- Salary averages are rough — useful for direction, not offers or negotiations.