Thursday, July 14, 2011

Moving to Belmopan

In our series of short blogs on moving between different international locations, we highlight cost of living and other major differences likely to be experienced.
Today we look at moving to Belmopan in Belize from Melbourne in Australia.
In Melbourne people speak English. In Belmopan people speak English (official), Spanish, Mayan, Garifuna (Carib) and Creole.

Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and is the second most populous city in Australia. Belmopan is the capital of Belize. Melbourne is home to Australia's busiest seaport and much of Australia's automotive industry, which include Ford and Toyota manufacturing facilities, and the engine manufacturing facility of Holden. It is home to many other manufacturing industries, along with being a major business and financial centre.
Belmopan is the seat of government. As a result many of its inhabitants work for the national government in various administrative or technical roles. Belmopan currently has business establishments, international banks, several local financial institutions, a modern bus terminal and market complex.

The overall cost of living rank in Melbourne is 17 out of 300 global locations, which equates it with high cost of living locations. An expatriate moving from Melbourne to Belmopan which has an overall cost of living rank of 274, which equates it with low cost of living locations, will experience a change in cost of living of -43.1%.
In terms of the hardship people are likely to experience, assessed in global terms, Belmopan is ranked as an extreme hardship location with a hardship index of 40% compared to Melbourne with a hardship index of 10% which is a minimal hardship location.

Source: http://www.xpatulator.com as at July 2011.

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