So I was surfing the net the other day and came across some interesting things related to living abroad. We all know that student spending must be monitored, especially in this economy. The cost of living in your study abroad location can be an important factor for many students. Every month, the U.S. Department of State publishes per diem allowances for government employees traveling abroad. They post allowed lodging and meal/incidental costs in USD per day for each worker. While the per diem allowances posted are over-priced for a student budget, much can be inferred from the relative price ranking of each city.
Below are the rankings of most expensive and least expensive cities to study abroad in (I only ranked cities that are potential study abroad destinations). Any surprises? I thought London would be top 5! And who thought Oxford was cheap? These rankings were determined based on highest and lowest per diem allowances allowed by the State Department (http://aoprals.state.gov/web920/per_diem.asp):
Most Expensive Cities
1. Tokyo
2. Rome
3. Venice
4. Paris
5. Dublin
6. Amsterdam
7. Geneva
8. Copenhagen
9. Florence
10. London
11. Hong Kong
15. Athens
19. Moscow
20. Tel Aviv
22. Galway, Ireland
24. Sydney
Least Expensive Cities
1. Buenos Aires
2. Lima, Peru
3. Phnom, Penh, Cambodia
4. Budapest
5. Christchurch, New Zealand
6. Cape Town, South Africa
7. Sao Paulo, Brazil
8. San Jose, Costa Rica
9. Oxford
10. Beijing
11. Mexico City
12. Panama City
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