Whats more expensive to live? norway or switzerland.

Question

my two favorite places. if you can gimme a chart of some sort of prices for regular things in these countries compared to the united states? that'd be great.

Answer 1

Based on most rankings, Norway is more expensive.  The criteria used by most of these involve comparing the cost of things like food, clothing/footwear, housing, sports, housewares, utilities, etc.

As a rough guide, before I get into the official research rankings, here are some general basics with approximate conversion to US dollars:

Loaf of bread in... Norway: 20 NOK = $3.75, Switzerland:  3 CHF = $2.75

Pint of beer:  50 NOK = $9.50, 5 CHF = $4.50

Gallon of gas:  NOK = $8.50, 6.50 CHF = $6.00

Inexpensive meal (i.e. street food):  50 NOK = $9.50, 8 CHF = $7.50

Public transportation ticket:  24 NOK = $4.50, 3 CHF = $2.75

(Swiss prices based on LonelyPlanet's cost index, Norwegian prices based on averages across Norwegian cities/towns)

Since there are often significant variations in living costs across a single country, it's difficult to compare cost of living at a country level.  There are many, many different rankings that all seem to return very different results.  Aneki.com lists Norway as the 5th most expensive country and Switzerland as 7th, but it doesn't really give details on how this is calculated:

http://www.aneki.com/expensive.html

Another study carried out by HSBC and widely published in the UK lists Norway as #1 (but the UK-centric articles don't mention where Switzerland lands in the list):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/jan...

However, last year's World Bank report (based on data from 2005) put Switzerland's price level index slightly higher than Norway's: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/ICPIN...

Mmost cost-of-living analysis is broken down by city, since the cost of living in cities is usually drastically different than in small towns or rural areas.  There are a number of these rankings, though one of the most quoted is from The Economist.  Their 2007 rankings (2008 has not yet been published) put Oslo as the #1 most expensive city.  Zurich is the highest Swiss city and ties for #6.

http://www.economist.com/markets/ranking...

The Mercer rankings specifically target the cost of living for international ex-pat employees, but it is another popular and often-quoted list.  It puts Oslo at #4 and for Switzerland, it actually ranks Geneva (#8) slightly higher than Zurich (#9).

There are a few more HR-targeted ranking lists available at citymayor.com, including the ECA International ranking, which seems to include more cities (Oslo and Stavanger are #2 and 3, and it includes four Swiss cities at #6, 8, 9, 10): http://www.citymayors.com/statistics/exp... and the UBS survey (Oslo #2, Zurich & Geneva at #6-7): http://www.citymayors.com/economics/expe...

And if you've never heard of it, one of the most entertaining studies is The Big Mac Index, calculated by The Economist.  It compares the purchasing power in different countries based on the cost of a Big Mac sandwich.  Put simply, it calculates how far a dollar would get you assuming that the Big Mac costs relatively the same amount compared to other goods in a country.

http://www.economist.com/finance/display...

For example, in Norway a Big Mac costs 40 NOK.  That's $7.88 USD, but a Big Mac only costs $3.57 in the US.  That implies that $1 will only buy you 45¢ worth of goods in Norway.  In Switzerland, the Big Mac is 6.50 CHF or $6.36 USD.  So your dollar is essentially worth 56¢ in Switzerland.

Answer 2

norway is the 5th most expensive country in the world according to aneki, and i have been there, i agree!!!!! it is so expensive

hotdog-US-$2.50  Norway-$10 or  50 krones

bottle water- US- $1.50 Norway-$5   or  25 krones

fish dinner US$10-$25(incl. drink) NOR.$60  or 300 krones(excl drinks)

soda US- $2   Norway-$6 or  30 krones

gallon of gas US  $4   Norway-$10  or   52 krones

(note   gas in norway is sold by litre not by gallon, 4 litres  is a gallon, so in norway at gas stations you usually see 13 krones on the sign, times that by four and thats a gallon,:(      so expensive)

good luck, i know there are reports for cost of living and i have seen it before and the example city was geneva, switzerland, and if you were serious about moving, i would by the reports for the cities you want, i cant recall the name of it, sorry, but i know it was so specific that they had costs of 2 bedrooms apartments in upscale parts of town and the more sketchy parts and like a 5 bedroom cottage price or a loft in downtown, and things like gallon of milk and so if you were serious i would add up all the totals, and be mathematical about it, i know it will be boring but it will help you understand the cost of living