Misc

The Cost of Living Around the World

Published

9 years ago

January 27, 2015

Jeff Desjardins

The Cost of Living Around the World

Imagine that users submitted hundreds of thousands of prices for everyday items, and that they all got compiled into a massive database. Then, suppose a worldwide index of prices was created that compared the cost of living across different places by using these many data points.

Well, that’s already happened at Numbeo which is the world’s largest database of user contributed data about cities and countries.

This infographic uses this information to show the most expensive and cheapest places to live by country. While it is missing some of the granularity of looking closer at individual regions and cities, it does do a good job of showing a broad perspective on living costs.

Switzerland and Norway may not surprise you as two of the most expensive countries. However, Venezuela might not have been a place that was on your radar. Of course, in retrospect, when you have inflation spiraling out of control at a rate of 64% per year, that will make things a bit pricey.

Want cheap goods and services? Head over to India, Nepal, and Pakistan. With about 1.5 billion people spread between those three countries, labour is cheap and the cost of living is very low.

Original graphic from: Movehub

Related Topics:CPI cost of living consumer price index prices

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Misc

Visualizing the Most Common Pets in the U.S.

Lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!—these animals do not feature on this list of popular American household pets.

Published

2 hours ago

April 27, 2024

Marcus Lu

A cropped chart showing the most popular pets in America by the number of households that own the pet.

Visualizing The Most Common Pets in the U.S.

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on iOS or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

In this graphic, we visualized the most common American household pets, based on 2023-2024 data from the American Pet Products Association (accessed via Forbes Advisor).

Figures represent the number of households that own each pet type, rather than the actual number of each animal. The “small animal” category includes hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, mice, rats, and ferrets.

What is the Most Popular American Household Pet?

Based on this data, dogs—one of the first domesticated animals—are the most common pets in the United States. In fact, around 65 million households own a dog, and spend an average of $900 a year on their care.

Rank	Species	Households
1	🐶 Dog	65M
2	🐱 Cat	47M
3	🐟 Freshwater Fish	11M
4	🐰 Small Animals	7M
5	🐦 Bird	6M
6	🦎 Reptile	6M
7	🐴 Horse	2M
8	🐠 Saltwater Fish	2M

Note: Households can own multiple pets, and are counted for all relevant categories.

Cats rank second, at 47 million households, and these smaller felines are a little less expensive to own at $700/year according to Forbes estimates.

But aside from these two juggernauts, there are plenty of other common pet types found in households across the country.

Freshwater fish can be found in 11 million households, along with small animals—rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs—in 7 million. Meanwhile, nearly 6 million homes have birds or reptiles.

Pet Ownership is on the Rise in America

Forbes found that 66% of all American households (numbering 87 million) own at least one pet, up from 56% in 1988. One third of these (29 million) own multiple pets.

A combination of factors is driving this increase: rising incomes, delayed childbirth, and of course the impact of the pandemic which nearly cleared out animal shelters across the globe.

America’s loneliness epidemic may also be a factor. Fledgling research has shown that single-individual households with pets recorded lower rates of loneliness during the pandemic than those without a pet.