The cost of living can vary dramatically from country to country. British scientists have assessed countries by the cost of living in them and ranked the most affordable countries. The factors they evaluated were: electricity and gas prices, real estate costs, and average salaries. The sample covered 29 countries for which they were able to get comprehensive data. 

So, the most affordable country was the United States of America, which scored 8.71 out of 10 points. The authors of the study note that, of course, from state to state the cost of living will differ, but, in general, this country is characterized by a high gross national income of 63,837 euros and a low ratio of real estate price to income of 4.5. This suggests that, on average, this country is more affordable to live in than any other on this list.

A comparison of the cost of living in the ten largest capitals worldwide

Here are the top 10 affordable countries with the key indicators by which they were evaluated:

Number in the rating

Country

Continent

Cost of electricity (kW⋅h)

Cost of natural gas (kW⋅h)

Real estate prices to income ratio

Gross national income per capita

Overall score

1.

USA

Noth America

€0.164

€0.055

4.5

€63,837

8.71

2.

Canada

 Noth America

€0.107

€0.04

9.4

€43,479

7.32

3.

Australia

 Oceania

€0.212

€0.079

7.5

€51,453

7.23

4.

Malaysia

Asia

€0.045

€0.024

8.1

€9,639

6.85

5.

New Zealand

Oceania

€0.175

€0.056

9

€40,707

6.76

6.

Ireland

 Europe

€0.39

€0.15

7.3

€68,499

6.39

7.

United Kingdom

 Europe

€0.374

€0.079

8.3

€40,032

5.47

8.

Argentina

 South America

€0.032

€0.005

22.7

€8,964

5.28

9.

Belarus

 Europe

€0.083

€0.007

13.8

€6,246

5.28

10.

Belgium

Europe

€0.48

€0.22

6.5

€45,441

5.09