How often do we hear people complain about how expensive Costa Rica is? Yes, very very often, and it is true that in the past 10 years or so the country has indeed become more expensive, and some articles or items of course, more than others, for instance clothes, shoes, cars, touristic destinations, jewelry, personal care items, electronic devices, electricity are usually very expensive in Costa Rica ; other things however are actually cheaper here when comparing them to other parts of the world in Europe and Asia, For example the amount paid for water, domestic services, property taxes , native fresh fruit and vegetables and health care services, among others.

But how does Costa Rica compare with other cities in the world when it comes to the cost of living? Here’s your answer:

According to the Worldwide Cost of Living Report 2017 from the Economist Intelligence, the top ten most expensive cities in the world are (in order): Singapore; Hong Kong; Zurich (Switzerland); Tokyo and Osaka (Japan); Seoul (South Korea), Geneva (Switzerland); Paris (France); Copenhagen (Denmark) and finally New York (USA).

The survey compares the prices of 160 goods and services in 133 cities around the world. San José, Costa Rica is ranked in position 78.

When compared to other Latin American cities, here is the result: Montevideo (Uruguay) is the first country in the region to appear in the ranking, holding position 62; followed by Guatemala City in position 69; then comes San José, Costa Rica in position 78 position which shares with Sao Paulo (Brazil); Buenos Aires (Argentina), Mexico City and Quito (Ecuador) are all in position 82 ; Lima (Peru), Santiago (Chile) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) share place 86, Bogota (Colombia) 96 and Panama City appears in the position 112.

In total, sixteen U.S. cities appear in the rankings, out of these, Atlanta is the one ranking lower, in position 75.