There are a number of ways of calculating cost of living comparisons. An entire industry sector is devoted to gathering and comparing cost data from numerous countries and analysing it. Often assumptions are made about the way you spend your money - for example, it might be assumed that you save a portion of your salary or that a family of a certain size has certain spending priorities. These kinds of assumptions tend to be used where companies expatriate an employee and pay a cost-of-living allowance, whilst continuing to pay salary in the original currency. If you are moving to Ireland on an Irish pound salary, you need to be able to compare your buying power with what you currently have. William Mercer Limited, which conducts surveys twice a year in over 120 major cities throughout the world, has provided the information in the following table. The table shows how costs compared between New York City, London, Frankfurt, Paris, New Delhi and Dublin in Spring 2000. These are purely cost-based and no assumptions are made about spending habits, family size or any other factors.