Daily Blog
Saturday, 21 November 2009 06:11
Written by Phil Boyle

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How does Shanghai compare to other Asian cities when it comes to the cost of living?

Chris Devonshire-Ellis over at China Briefing has done a big piece in their November edition called 'The Asia Comparator'. They've taken 13 cities across Asia (although for some reasn Tokyo doesn't feature...) and compared a host of things from the wage comparison of a car mechanic to the average cost of a three-star hotel for one night. There are 24 comparisons in total, and makes for quite an interesting study. Especially since they've thrown in New York into all of the comparisons as well to give you a global idea of prices...

So how does Shanghai fair - the highs and lows?
Well, Shanghai pays more tax (22% on average) than any of the other 12 cities. Here's the stats (numbers in percentages of taxes and social security contributions as % of gross wages):

New York - 28
Shanghai - 22
Seoul - 21
Beijing - 16
Kuala Lumpur - 14

Singapore - 14
Manila - 13
Taipei - 12
Jakarta - 11
Mumbai - 10
Delhi - 9
Hong Kong - 9
Hanoi - 8
Bangkok - 5

Yet, people in Shanghai work less than anyone else (average working hours per annum):

Seoul - 2,312
Hong Kong - 2,295
Hanoi - 2,224
Mumbai - 2,196
Jakarta - 2,172
Delhi - 2,166
Bangkok - 2,165
Singapore - 2,088
Taipei - 2,074
Beijing - 2,052
Kuala Lumpur - 2,052
Manila - 2,032
New York - 1,955
Shanghai - 1,946

So that means you've got more time on youir hands to hang out in expensive restaurants. Shanghai scorespretty high on this, sat in there just behind Hong Kong, Singapore and New York in the expensive restaurant stakes, as the table shows (prices are in US$ for the average price of a three course meal in a 'good quality' restaurant not including drinks):

Hong Kong - 54
Singapore - 52
New York - 50
Shanghai - 45
Taipei - 40
Bangkok - 34
Seoul - 33
Beijing - 25
Jakarta - 21
Hanoi - 20
Mumbai - 20
Manila - 19
Kuala Lumpur - 17
Delhi - 13

Perhaps the most interesting thing to come form all of these comparisons is to see that the gap between China and India is gorwing and growing, with salaries shown to be double that of India.

All pretty interesting stuff and can be checked out in much more detail right here. Theres' stuff on apartment costs, the price of running cars, home appliances, the time it takes to buy a Big Mac of an Ipod... The list(s) goes on.They just obviously couldn't afford the flight to Tokyo. 

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