Once you've calculated your potential net income in Ireland using the examples in Tax and the Single Person or Tax and Marriage, you'll want to see what you can purchase with it and compare that to your current country of residence. You probably already have an idea of general prices from visits, but you can make a more informed decision with more exact information.

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.

The index is taken from the cost of a standard "basket of goods" that is purchased in each location. The numbers compare mean prices in the base city to mean prices in the host city. This comparison is not biased in any direction and provides a good cost comparison for the cost of goods in two different locations for a middle-to-high income earner, especially in cities that have similar standards of living (such as the cities included in the table). It is worth noting that the index is reversible. For example, in the numbers provided, Dublin=100 while London=124, where Dublin is the base city (in other words a person from Ireland living in London). If London is the base city (and therefore equal to 100), then Dublin would be 76. In comparing Dublin to New York with Dublin as the base city, New York is 117; where the cities are reversed and New York becomes the base at 100, Dublin becomes 83.

Index Categories	Frankfurt	New York	Paris	London	New Delhi
Index: Dublin means prices = 100
Food at home	101	139	97	124	69
Alcohol & Tobacco	60	98	64	117	102
Domestic supplies	103	114	101	128	88
Personal care	95	115	106	128	88
Clothing,footwear	87	111	96	111	98
Home services	129	171	140	143	29
Utilities	104	147	126	133	135
Entertainment	103	129	119	138	98
Transportation	79	77	84	116	76
Sports & Leisure	113	111	117	126	113
Total Index	96	117	101	124	81
a) Exc. Utilities	96	117	101	124	81
b) Exc. Transportation	99	127	105	126	82
c) Exc. Both above	99	125	103	125	78

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers / William M. Mercer (Spring 2000)

The comparisons throw up some surprises - notice, for example, the marked differences for alcohol and tobacco, except when comparing to the UK. This reflects the high level of Government duty levied on these items in Ireland and the UK. Of course, when calculating the costs of living in Ireland, it is important to add the cost of housing - either rent or mortgage. These are not included in the above figures, however see the series of articles on Housing, which cover rental and purchase prices throughout Ireland.

If you have questions about the cost of living in Ireland, please post a question in the Forums.