The average employee has to work nine hours to afford an iPod nano, whereas in Mumbai he has to work 177 hours



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The iPod index
A report by UBS

Ranking: The richest cities in the world
(Working hours required to buy an iPod nano)

22 August 2009: One vivid way to illustrate the relative purchasing power of wages is to replace the abstract basket of goods and services with a specific, highly uniform product that is available everywhere with the same quality, and then calculate how long an employee would have to work to be able to afford it in each city. For the first time, a non-food product was used in the study to compare working hours. The iPod nano with 8 GB of storage is an ideal example of a globally uniform product. An average wage-earner in Zurich and New York can buy a nano from an Apple store after nine hours of work. At the other end of the spectrum, workers in Mumbai, need to work 20 nine-hour days – roughly the equivalent of one month's salary – to purchase an iPod nano.
Rank 2009
Cities
Hours of work needed to buy an iPod nano
1
 New York
9.0
2
 Zurich
9.0
3
 Los Angeles
9.5
4
 Sydney
9.5
5
 Dublin
10.0
6
 Geneva
10.0
7
 Luxembourg
10.0
8
 Miami
10.0
9
 Montreal
10.5
10
 Oslo
10.5
11
 Toronto
10.5
12
 Copenhagen
11.0
13
 London
11.0
14
 Stockholm
11.0
15
 Chicago
11.5
16
 Tokyo
12.0
17
 Helsinki
12.5
18
 Brussels
13.0
19
 Amsterdam
13.5
20
 Frankfurt
13.5
21
 Munich
13.5
22
 Berlin
14.0
23
 Vienna
14.0
24
 Lyon
15.0
25
 Nicosia
15.0
26
 Paris
15.0
27
 Madrid
15.5
28
 Auckland
16.0
29
 Barcelona
16.0
30
 Milan
16.0
31
 Hong Kong
19.0
32
 Lisbon
19.5
33
 Rome
19.5
34
 Dubai
20.0
35
 Seoul
22.0
36
 Tel Aviv
22.0
37
 Manama
23.0
38
 Taipei
23.5
39
 Athens
24.5
40
 Singapore
27.5
41
 Ljubljana
32.0
42
 Doha
35.0
43
 Moscow
36.0
44
 Tallinn
39.5
45
 Johannesburg
41.5
46
 Prague
43.0
47
 Bratislava
45.5
48
 Warsaw
45.5
49
 São Paulo
46.5
50
 Riga
51.0
51
 Kuala Lumpur
52.0
52
 Istanbul
56.0
53
 Rio de Janeiro
56.0
54
 Shanghai
56.5
55
 Bogotá
62.5
56
 Bucharest
63.5
57
 Bangkok
66.0
58
 Budapest
68.5
59
 Santiago
69.5
60
 Beijing
73.0
61
 Vilnius
74.5
62
 Sofia
78.0
63
 Kiev
82.0
64
 Lima
86.5
65
 Jakarta
93.0
66
 Mexico City
95.0
67
 Caracas
97.0
68
 Buenos Aires
99.0
69
 Cairo
105.0
70
 Delhi
122.5
71
 Manila
128.5
72
 Nairobi
160.0
73
 Mumbai
177.0

UBS survey: Introduction | The most expensive cities | The richest cities (personal earnings) | Richest cities (purchasing power) | The iPod index |

Methodology
USB conducted its standardized Prices and Earnings survey in 73 international cities in March 2009. The data was collected by several independent observers in each city. In all, more than 30,000 data points were included in the analysis. All amounts were converted into a single currency to ensure that the surveyed prices and earnings could be compared. To compensate for daily exchange rate fluctuations, we used the average exchange rate over the data collection period. An international price comparison needs a common, standard basket of goods and services. As in past studies, the basket of goods and services was based on Western European consumer preferences. Living costs were calculated based on a survey of 154 items in total. They include 122 products and services that are used directly to calculate the reference basket. Apartment rents were classified as high-, mid- and low-priced.

Related research
THE MOST EXPENSIVE AND RICHEST CITIES IN THE WORLD

UBS survey (August 2009): Most expensiv and richeste cities (Intro) | World's most expensive cities (table) | Richest cities by personal earnings (table) | Richest cities by purchasing power (table | The iPod index |

ECA International survey (June 2009): Introduction | Table: World | Table: Europe | Table: Asia |

Mercer survey (2009): Most expensive cities

EIU survey (2009): Most expensive cities

RICHEST CITIES BY GDP
Introduction | 150 richest cities in 2005 | 150 richest cities in 2020 | Europe's richest cities |

THE LARGEST CITIES IN THE WORLD AND THEIR MAYORS 2010
Introduction
Cities by size: 1 to 150 | 151 to 300 | 301 to 450 | 451 to 550 |
Cities in alphabetical order: A to D | E to L | M to R | S to Z |
Cities by countries: A to D | E to L | M to R | S to Z |
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