Not surprisingly, countries with the lowest Gini are former socialist countries like Slovenia and the Czech Republic, and parts of Scandinavia, with GCs of around 0.25. A Gini of 0 means that everyone has exactly the same wealth and a Gini of 1 means that one dictator owns everything in the whole country. Other stats are more carefully compiled, such as the Gini Coefficient that measures the equality of wealth in a nation. Of course the sources for these stats are from websites that use data collected from people sending it in, so there will be a bias.
Smaller cities like Pereira, Popayán and Bucaramanga give similar results, which explains why, for all its hardships, Bogotá still attracts many people: more work opportunities and higher salaries, though there may be other compelling quality-of-life reasons to live in Colombia’s smaller cities.
Crunching data from the Expatistan website gives us the table below. But here’s the rub: outside Bogotá salaries are also lower. Other large cities are definitely cheaper than the capital. However, they face other problems like broken schools and a lack of health posts. Is this because Bogotá is the capital? Are there other places in Colombia where the living is easy? Of course, in rural areas people can grow food and be more self-sufficient. In practical terms, that means the average rolo salary can afford to buy just over a third of typical goods and services than the average salary in New York City. Bogotá’s LPP Index is 37, which puts it pretty low down – in the bottom third with New Delhi, Bangkok and Lima. This looks at the cost of living and local wages and takes New York as the benchmark at 100. There are other sources that support this, like the international Local Purchasing Power (LPP) Index. It also explains the wave of guilt that some people feel when they spend more than the minimum wage on their monthly grocery bill. These stats give insights into some of the social aspects of Bogotá, such as why adults still live with mum and dad, why so many Colombians want to move overseas, why Bogotá has so much crime and why the teachers (who earn just under the average salary) have just been on strike. But why? When we talk about ‘cost of living’, surely we mean ‘having a life’. How much does it cost to live in Bogotá? OK, some of you might suggest cutting back on the drinks, meals out, gym, cinema and internet. The chart below shows where your money might go, and compares it to London and Washington DC. And forget about saving for your own place. Even more if you want holidays, pets, a car or a family as well as the above list. It may be a slightly misleading figure since we live in a country with very high wage differences, but even so, it means that to achieve even this modest lifestyle you will have to earn nearly twice the average wage. There are about 2.2 million Colombians who live on the minimum wage of COP$737,717 (about USD$250) and your average salary will net you about COP$1.2 million (about USD$400). Numbeo collects user-provided cost data from cities around the world, which may not be the most scientifically rigorous methodology, but they are a good benchmark. According to my calculations based on data from the website the above scenario will cost you USD$779 a month here. So here’s the bad news: in Bogotá, you can’t.
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You work full time and earn the average wage. You often cook at home, and have several beers and two bottles of wine a month. You are a single person, living in a shared three-bedroom flat close to the city centre, having the occasional meal out with beers and some lunches in a local café, go to the movies every fortnight, the gym from time to time, buy a pair of jeans and new shoes every six months, drink a cappuccino every day, use local transport and a few taxis. Notwithstanding that (and perhaps finally to banish the ghost of my university failure), I present my armchair-expert findings distilled from various websites and my own random survey in the local corner shop. How much does it cost to live in Bogotá? Of course the question depends on who you are, and the notoriously fickle field of statistics, which I failed at uni years ago. How much does it cost to live in Bogotá? With some back-of-a-beermat calculations on the cost of living and drastic wage inequality, our columnist ponders inequality and shows his left-of-centre leanings. How much does it cost to live in Bogotá? There are always ways to be a bit more thrifty with your cash.
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